'fH 








r 




.1.1. . 1 










1 ■ 


Hi^^^^^^^^^^^^H 10 




li- 


1 1 ■^^^HHRIH^BW^^MW^^^^^S^isi 

1 llll IlilllH *M't ! J^&$Sffi?K^sv^ 






H 
1 ** 










Book ,,j?££ 

1=1(1 — l«\ |-2 — 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/addressespapersOOdrap 



New York State Education Department 



ADDRESSES AND PAPERS 



BY 



ANDREW S. DRAPER LL.B. LL.D. 

Commissioner of Education 



191 I — 1912 



ALBANY, N. Y. 
1912 



/ 



ADDRESSES AND PAPERS 



BY 



ANDREW S. DRAPER LL.B. LL.D. 

Commissioner of Education 



191 1 — 1912 



STATE OF NEW YORK 

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

ALBANY 



Z 1 



: t 

V C\\V 



NOV 33 !«9 



CONTENTS 

Page 

All People and all Education 9 

Memorial Day and World Peace 21 

Lincoln in his Writings 37 

The Evolution of Education in the United States 47 

The Jewels of the Nation 73 

Criticisms of Education Chapter in Proposed New York 

City Charter 85 

Remarks at the Inauguration of Chancellor Elmer 

Ellsworth Brown 95 

What is Expected of District Superintendents 101 

No Mummified History in New York Schools 115 

The Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 125 

Weaknesses in American Universities 139 

Introduction to Eighth Annual Report of New York 

State Education Department 157 

The Story of the Erection of the Education Building. . 167 

The Normal Progress of the United States 203 

Rural Supervision in New York 211 

City Schools Entitled to a Government of Their Own. . 219- 

Ancient versus Modern Learning in Free Schools 227 

The Place of Saratoga in the Revolutionary War 237 

Education Building — Dedicatory Address 257 

D34-My 12-3500 (7-14757) 



ALL PEOPLE AND ALL EDUCATION 



ALL PEOPLE AND ALL EDUCATION 1 

It is a genuine satisfaction to participate in your celebration of 
the accomplishments of the first twenty-five years in the life of 
this young university. As universities go, Temple University is 
yet very young. I have wandered about the halls of universities 
that have been six hundred or eight hundred years in the building. 
The oldest of our American universities is looking forward to its 
three hundredth anniversary. It certainly takes time to develop a 
great university, but we in America have a way of building uni- 
versities more rapidly than they do in other lands or than they 
used to do in this country. That fact finds splendid illustration in 
the growth of this institution. Our celebration will not recall his- 
tory and tradition very much ; it will not be very boastful of gray- 
headed " old grads " gone to the United States Senate or Supreme 
Court; it will not be a solemn festival where old men have all the 
good seats and indulge in reminiscences ; but it will be a sort of 
hilarious expression of the energy, the accomplishments, the hopes, 
and the determination of youth. While I am no longer a young 
man as years go, I am bound to say that this kind of a celebration 
is not without exceedingly attractive features. 

Temple University is not only young; it is democratic. It is not 
exclusive socially or educationally. It gives warm welcome to all 
who can do its work. It recognizes the fact that work done gives 
the best promise of the power to do, and it therefore regards 
records and certificates; but it does not believe, or even half-way 
believe, that the people of the United States are to be classified 
and one class educated and another not; and it does not believe, 
or even half-way believe, that all education worth the name is 
ancient and literary, and that all education that is modern or indus- 
trial is hardly worth the having. On the contrary, it believes that 
every one should have his chance ; that the door of opportunity 
should open to the earnest purpose and to the power to do; and 
that the education which enters into life and makes life better 
worth the living is the education that is of the most worth and 
that most surely concerns American universities. 

These two facts, the youth and the democracy of this institu- 



1 Abstract of address given at the silver anniversary and founder's day 
exercises of Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa., on February II, 1911. 



12 

tion, give the stranger within your gates the theme for his observa- 
tions upon your silver anniversary. 

It is impossible, and it ought to be impossible, that wealth shall 
be evenly distributed, or at least shall long remain evenly dis- 
tributed, among men and women. Social and industrial communi- 
ties with a common treasury in which all the members have equal 
rights are chimerical and transitory because unjust. The personal 
equation is a rightful factor in determining individual progress and 
human situations. That is true of this country above any other 
country, because here ambitions are always rife, opportunities are 
always open, and things are always moving, while in other countries 
the individual status is very fixed, opportunities are very infre- 
quent, and the affairs of the people move slowly and laboriously. 
Of course the results are in both directions. There are not many 
of us who have reached middle life or gone beyond it, who have 
not seen fortunes disappear and names lose their significance, and 
who have not also seen competencies accumulated and new names 
made great. It is the result of our natural physical resources, 
our mingling of different nationalities, our universal ambitions, our 
religious toleration, our political institutions, and our continued 
activity. It is so for the first time in human history, and it is right. 
Genius, gifts, studiousness, learning, craftsmanship, assiduity, 
probity, and prudence are entitled not only to their accumulations 
but also to have their accumulations protected. Incapacity and 
shiftlessness are bound to suffer their inevitable consequences. But 
in this country every one must have his chance and then he must 
take the consequences. It is good American doctrine that there 
shall be equality of legal right, that the common power shall not 
help one and hinder another, and that upon that basis every one 
must accept the consequences and keep the peace. 

This relates to education as to any other kind of riches ; and it 
has been and is to be more of a matter to work out this principle 
as to education in America than most people are accustomed to 
think. 

Temple University is not only a new and possibly a somewhat 
unique university, but it is in a new and somewhat unique country. 
In situation and relations and purposes and institutions this country 
is to be distinguished from all other countries. It may not in all 
things be better than all other countries, but it is certainly in very 
many things very different from any other country, and of course 
we believe that it averages a little better than any other. 



13 

All other countries have upper and nether classes. We inherited 
a great deal from the countries from which we came, but we 
refused to accept the class distinctions. We inherited our thinking 
about education and the plan and scope of our higher institutions 
of learning from other countries, and as these were based upon 
class distinctions we have had difficulty in reorganizing and recon- 
structing them so as to get rid of the old basis and readjust them 
to democratic rather than exclusive or autocratic foundations. 

All the early American colleges were exclusive. Their view of 
educational values was exceedingly narrow. They held that there 
was no education which was not classical, metaphysical, dogmatic. 
Indeed, they were so dogmatic that they would now be held to be 
irreligious. Think, for example, of a president of Yale College 
writing in his diary " Colonel Ethan Allen has died and gone to 
hell this day." Fortunately for both of them the president delayed 
his entry of judgment until Ethan Allen was dead. It needs 
courage to appeal from the judgment of a college president, but I 
guess an appeal would lie from that to the throne of the Almighty. 
Righteous as he and his compeers were, they had much to learn. 
They needed to learn not only moderation of judgment, but also 
that the sciences were to unlock God's truths in conformity with 
human intelligence and in response to human research, and that 
there was education, and no conflict with true religion, in all that. 
And they needed to learn, what their day could not reveal to them, 
that education may be as broad as mankind and as the world of 
mankind, and relates to all human lives, to all planes of life, and 
to all that can make life in the world better worth the living, to 
the end that life in the hereafter may be better worth the having. 
Indeed they needed to have, what the early conditions necessarily 
denied them, the lights which the progress of our social and indus- 
trial life under democratic institutions has thrown upon the possi- 
bilities and therefore the responsibilities of the higher learning. 

If the early colleges were exclusive, so were the early secondary 
schools. The early " academies " were the offshoots of the early 
colleges and in scope and spirit were like them. They were ordi- 
narily initiated and always fostered by the colleges, that they might 
be feeders for them. A given academy guided such of its students 
as were going to college to a given college. To be sure, all the 
students of the academy did not go to college: often the more 
well-to-do sent their children to the academy which was convenient 
in order better to prepare them for life, when they had no thought 



14 

of their going to college. But whatever became of the student, 
his work in the academy had to be narrowed by the thinking of 
the professors in the college to which he was expected to go if 
he were going to college at all. And as the thinking of the pro- 
fessors in all the colleges was within arbitrary limits and much the 
same, the offerings of the academies were very few and much 
alike. 

This was the survival, of course, of the thinking and of the 
educational plans and institutions of Europe, and essentially of 
the British Isles. It was precisely what was to have been expected. 
There has been much said about the educational purposes and 
doings of the early American settlers, and much that has been said 
has been without information about the facts. When Englishmen 
first settled in America there were higher and lower classes in 
England, as there are today. Those Englishmen did not cease to 
be Englishmen, and had no thought of it, when they came to 
America. They brought with them all their preconceived notions, 
and habits of mind, and well-settled manner of life, and established 
arrangements for training their young. They did not change these 
in any essential way for a century, nor in any large way for two 
centuries. At Plymouth, through the Pilgrim Church, they un- 
doubtedly taught their children to read a little and to write their 
names, according to the English custom, to make sure that they 
could read the Bible and so gain salvation, but there is no proof 
whatever of the existence of an independent school of any kind 
in the Plymouth colony for half a century after the year so great 
in American history, 1620. At Massachusetts Bay the first schools 
were a little college, now our oldest and one of our greatest uni- 
versities, and a preparatory school for it. As the settlements grew 
in size and in numbers and moved back from the coast, other 
fitting schools were established. There were " classes " then and 
for generations afterward in Massachusetts, just as there were in 
England, and what was done in the way of schools was done by 
the upper class, and related essentially to the training of their 
children for service in the state and the church, which were united 
in one. Only the barest elements of learning were accorded to the 
children of the multitude, and thought of training such for the 
higher things of life was as much beyond the possibility of aristo- 
cratic contemplation in that day as the idea of going back to the 
educational plan of that day would be beyond the outposts of our 
understanding: now. 



i5 

It must be said that this was not wholly or absolutely true in 
all parts of the country, for Holland had broken the back of auto- 
cratic power and celebrated her victories by establishing elementary 
schools for the masses as well as universities for the few, and the 
Dutchmen who came to New York and Pennsylvania brought their 
ways of thinking with them. In their poverty they did set up ele- 
mentary schools, the first in America, although they were unable 
to establish colleges. But fortunately, as we now believe, the 
English power was to prevail over all the other powers that were 
seeking to dominate America, and with the prevalence of the 
English power there had to come, and happily, as the sequel has 
proved, the English plan of education. 

As there is better result when we take high ideals, even though 
narrow ones, and liberalize them, and put under them foundations 
which can carry them, and build stairs by which all people may 
get up to them, than when we are without high ideals altogether, 
it is well that the English power and plan of education came to 
prevail everywhere in America. But it must be distinctly said that 
that is not because it was then or is now such a good plan in itself, 
but because it was and is a good plan for democracy to make 
better. And that is precisely what we have been doing; and it is 
what the older nations, not excepting the Mother Country herself, 
because of the persistence of the old order of things and because 
of the lack or the slow progress of democracy, have been unable 
to do at all, or at least with anything like the celerity and force- 
fulness that have marked the progress of education in the United 
States. 

Of course there has been notable educational progress in all 
countries worth mentioning since the colonial days in America. 
The character and the extent of it have depended upon the ambition 
and independence, the intellectual agencies and the political insti- 
tutions of the people. It has often been energized by commerce 
and accelerated by war. But it has as commonly been held back 
by religious intolerance, and it has uniformly been blocked by 
the self-interest and obstinacy of caste. In Britain, France, 
Switzerland, Holland, the German Empire, and. the Scandinavian 
countries, there are excellent primary schools and noble universi- 
ties. We may now almost say that of Italy. We may certainly 
say it of Japan, for constitutionalism has made real progress there, 
and the keel of the educational system was laid, the decks were 
built, and the spars were set up by American teachers. If the 



i6 

whole truth were told, the elementary schools of the leading 
countries of Europe are as universal as the elementary schools of 
the United States, and are even more efficient in teaching the 
elements of knowledge. The reason is that the management of the 
system is more arbitrary; attendance is universal and regular; 
theorists and children are not allowed to control the schools ; there 
is not so much senseless exploitation of pedagogy and psychology 
in the schools ; there are not so many conventions, and there is a 
charming and restful freedom from unprofitable disputation by 
superintendents and teachers of primary schools over apparently 
unsolvable matters which belong in the universities if they belong 
anywhere. The schools have definite work to do and they do it; 
and the result is that the percentage of illiteracy is negligible and 
all the people have a good firm grasp upon the elements of knowl- 
edge which are vital to comfortable subsistence in primitive life. 
And that is more than is true of all the people in the United States. 

All these leading nations over the seas have ancient and splendid 
universities. By far the greater part of those universities are 
held back by old traditions and arbitrary forms. But that is by 
no means the worst of it from the American point of view. There 
is no connection between them and the primary schools. Of 
course there are occasional exceptions ; local history may supply 
the reasons for an invasion of the general plan in a circumscribed 
region of country, and exceptional genius may have broken 
through the wall of caste here and there; but the overwhelming 
fact is that there is no open road in Europe from the elementary 
schools to the universities. The people who control the educational 
policies of the Old World do not intend that there shall be one. 
As the primary schools are a thing unto themselves, so are the uni- 
versities. As the primary schools are efficient for the nether class 
of people, the universities are efficient for the upper class. If 
there must be an arbitrary wall between classes of people who are 
all alike vital to the power, the progress, and the happiness of a 
nation, the arrangement is probably as good as any that could be 
set up. But we do not believe in any such arbitrary division among 
the people, and we know that any such educational arrangement 
is not only unjust to the masses but also that it keeps from the 
universities the very youths who alone can save them from losing 
their virility and going to seed. 

And so the people of the United States have been setting up a 
better scheme of education, and it may be said that they have 



arrived at it in a rather singular and unexpected way. It would 
have been as impossible to convince the early American colleges, 
as it would their English prototypes, of any fundamental errors 
in their scheme. But democracy did its work so perfectly that in 
time even the old line colleges had to remove their mortar boards 
to it. 

The history of elementary and common schools in the American 
colonies is a barren one. Not until the old bell at Independence 
Hall in this city clanged out the glad proclamation of independence 
of royal rule, and the colonists had made their Declaration good 
in successful battle, did there begin to develop anything like a uni- 
versal system of elementary schools in America. The royal gov- 
ernment of England. had a hard enough time in asserting its rule 
over other royal governments in the wilds of America, and after 
it had effected that, it did even less for the education of the plain 
people in the colonies than it did for its plain people at home, and 
that was little enough. But for half a century after independence 
we were setting up the English educational plan which embraced 
classical colleges, with academic fitting schools for the well-to-do 
and elementary schools for the farmers and the mechanics. By 
the middle of the nineteenth century the common elementary school 
had become universal and was ready for a new evolution. The 
wall was being lowered. The new evolution was the common high 
school. There was a great fight over it, and notably in Pennsyl- 
vania, but it came. It came so generally and so strongly that it 
overwhelmed most of the academies and gave the colleges a seri- 
ous jolt. Here was the bridge over which the children of the 
common people could come to the very doors of the higher insti- 
tutions. Of course those doors opened for them. An ancient edu- 
cational system and a modern educational movement were face 
to face and would have to adjust themselves to each other or the 
next evolution of the new educational impulse would overwhelm 
the college itself. The effort to adjust the college was sincere and 
partially successful, perhaps as successful as was well, but it was 
difficult of attainment and the further manifestation of democracy 
in education came in a little time and with transcendent conse- 
quences. That further manifestation was in democratic universi- 
ties, broader in their foundations and more influential in the affairs 
of the nation than any higher institutions of learning that America, 
or even the world, had seen before. 

Apart from the enlargement of educational opportunity, the 



holding out of the equal chance to the multitude, the influence of 
it all upon the older colleges themselves, has been very decisive, 
and the growth of distinctly democratic universities in the United 
States is an evolution of the very first moment in world education. 
The old-time colleges, developed since our Civil War into great 
universities, have willingly testified of the satisfactory preparation 
of students for their college work by the public high schools, and 
of the democratic influence of students so prepared upon the uni- 
versities themselves. And no one can fail to see that the depend- 
ence of these older institutions upon students trained in the high 
schools is so great that the offerings, as well as the atmosphere and 
spirit, of even conservative universities have had to bend to new 
ways of thinking and to the interests of a wider constituency than 
they have ever had before. 

But of more consequence to American education than the influ- 
ence of this democratic advance upon universities already estab- 
lished, is the erection of great universities as a constituent part of 
the public school system, offering the best instruction in every 
study, in all the newer states of the Union, and directly under the 
support and management of the people themselves. They are sup- 
ported by the states with absolute enthusiasm and many of them 
have in the last quarter century come to be numbered not only 
among the largest but among the greatest of American universi- 
ties. That of course means that they have come to rank well upon 
old-line subjects — that is, upon classical, literary, philosophical, 
and purely scientific branches — with universities anywhere in the 
world. But it may be justly added that in addition to this they 
have gone outside of and beyond the older institutions in lines of 
work which bear upon the social and industrial life of the people, 
and have to do with the political sciences and the administration of 
states and municipalities in a measure that fully justifies them to 
all the people. And, moreover, the absence of sectarian control 
has made for freedom of discussion, without cant, in religious 
matters, which is practically unprecedented in higher education. 
By reason of it all they have in recent years grown in numbers of 
teachers and of students, in property, in offerings, and in telling 
influence, far more rapidly than the endowed universities of the 
country. 

The Federal Bureau of Education has recently reported that 
there are eighty-one of these tax-supported universities and other 
institutions of higher education wholly or partially supported by 



the state, having 7960 teachers in their faculties and 84,555 stu- 
dents in attendance. Each of the great states in the north central 
section of the Union has a great public university with from three 
to six thousand students who find whatever training they may 
wish and, speaking generally, of as high quality as is provided in 
any institution of the country. Last Saturday night graduates of 
the State University of Michigan banqueted in the city of New 
York. A special train brought a throng from Michigan to this 
function. At the board sat a Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, four members of the National Senate, and 
twenty-four members of the National House of Representatives, 
besides great numbers of other men distinguished in public life 
and in the professional, commercial, and industrial life of Michi- 
gan and of the country. In a note to this company my long-time 
friend, Dr James B. Angell, former president of the university, said : 

The university is not rich in lands, or in buildings, or in 
bonds ; but in the talent, character and achievements of her 
thirty thousand sons and daughters now living she is rich 
beyond computation. 

The graduates of Michigan have come of a virile stock, 
from homes where self-denial was practised that they might 
receive their education. They brought habits of industry, 
a heroic determination to prepare themselves for useful 
careers and a high purpose to make their way honorably over 
or through all obstacles. 

This is our chief endowment — men and women scattered all 
over this land and over foreign lands who have brought things 
to pass, and have been a great power in the world. They make 
the name of Michigan respected everywhere. 

This illustrates much. What Michigan is doing for the higher 
learning, she is of course doing for all learning, because all grades 
of learning are interdependent. And what Michigan is doing to 
help all people to all learning, all the other states beyond the Alle- 
gheny mountains are doing in a large and far-seeing way. The 
territory of Michigan, with that of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
Wisconsin, was dedicated to freedom, to religion, and to education 
by the great ordinance of 1787, and all of them have not only 
kept the pact but have spread the same faith to the Pacific 
coast. While democracy was really getting upon its feet, when 
the western states were taking form and it was therefore easier to 
erect higher institutions of learning upon new and democratic lines 
in those states than in the older ones, it must be said that the 



20 

endowed universities have bent to the new influences with remark- 
able facility, and some of the older state governments have re- 
sponded to the democratic advance in rather thoroughgoing ways. 
Out of it all there has developed an educational organization 
in the United States that, as already observed, may not be as com- 
pletely efficient in its every part as some of the corresponding parts 
in some of the systems in some other countries may be, but our 
system surely shows more comprehensiveness, universality and 
solidarity than any other national system of education in the 
world. All the people are to have equal educational opportunity 
in America, and the highest learning of the world is to be at the 
service of every culturing, professional, scientific, commercial and 
industrial interest of all the people. 

As I understand it, Temple University is in a special sense a 
people's university. While under peculiar obligations to a founder 
who gave himself and devoted what he could to it, it has not had 
the advantage of what have now come to be known as princely 
gifts in education. Surely you have had reason to know that you 
have not been a tax-supported university. But you have appealed 
to the masses and grown upon your humble and needful work. 
You have not been exclusive : you have held out the helping hand 
to all who were ambitious and assiduous and yet for one reason 
or another might not be able to make their education their only 
business, or were not able to fit into, and perhaps were not dis- 
posed to fit into, the hard and fast grooves of established institu- 
tions. If that has been the idea, you have been richly entitled to 
the prosperity that has attended you. 

Of course it is not necessary for me to say that all universities 
must observe the standards which come to be fixed by the educa- 
tional sense and experience of the country. Doing that, you will 
prove your worth and you will realize with the succeeding years, 
more and more, that, while it may not be best that all the people 
of the country shall go to college, provision must be made for all 
who can do college work and who knock upon the college door. 
Since New York City has become a way station on the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, it is hardly within the proprieties for a New 
Yorker to tender advice to the magnificent municipality of Phila- 
delphia or the imperial commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but it is 
within a freeman's right to say that, between them, they would 
honor themselves by providing you money which would help you 
to make such provision yet more completely, for all who would 
like to enter one of your doors. 



MEMORIAL DAY AND WORLD PEACE 



MEMORIAL DAY AND WORLD PEACE 1 

American travelers are struck by the display of old battle flags 
and tablets in memory of soldier heroes, in the churches of Europe. 
Many a Presbyterian pilgrim to the early shrines of his church 
will recall the brilliant colors and the glowing records of Highland 
regiments in the numerous panels of the grand old cathedral of 
the established Presbyterian church of Scotland, standing over 
against the ancient necropolis in Glasgow. That is a rather 
natural intertwining of patriotism and Presbyterianism where 
they are much the same. But the custom is usual and logical in 
all countries where the political state and a dominant church are 
interdependent. 

The bright colors, the testimony to splendid heroisms, the con- 
tinual stirring of patriotic emotions, are both attractive and stimu- 
lating. But after a little, as the intelligent American reflects upon 
it, there is something about it that is not completely grateful to 
him. He recalls that these displays are evidence of the aid and 
special favor of government to a particular congregation or a 
particular denomination. Pie reasons that when a political state 
favors a particular church it demands something in return. He 
knows that congregations and whole denominations have protested 
against the policy for hundreds of years and grown strong through 
their protesting. He knows that the institutions of his country 
have grown out of that protest. He knows that that protest is 
growing more vehement in all parts of the world. He sees that 
religion does not find its mainspring in political power; that 
churches may better be the independent guides and, if need be, 
the free critics of government, and neither the suppliants nor 
the instruments of parliaments and kings. He believes that 
religion is more likely to be undefiled and the state strong where 
the church is free from political entanglements and the state is 
independent of sectarian domination. His reading has told him 
that free churches are more the cause than they are the product 
of free states, and that free churches give a better support than 
do state churches to states that have the best right to be. He 
knows that the flag of his country deserves adoration and he adores 



1 Address at the First Presbyterian Church, Albany, on Sunday, May 28, 
1911. 

23 



24 

it, but he may question whether even the flag stands for more 
than the church stands for, and he even disputes the prominence 
and significance of the flag that he adores, in the place and the 
hour set apart for the worship of his God. Anyway, he con- 
cludes with all confidence that a church must reject any theory 
and repel any usage which does not magnify and promote the 
blessings of peace, and does not deplore the necessity and lessen 
the possibility of war. And he thinks of his own church and his 
own flag with yet deeper satisfaction than he had before. 

It is now full fifty years since the outbreak of the awful war 
which abolished slavery at a cost of men and means and heart- 
aches beyond all calculation. The day set apart by the laws of 
the northern states for paying respect to the memories of the 
heroic dead of the Union armies in that war is again at hand. 
The churches have no misgivings about the propriety of their 
participating in the national observance. Grateful to the noble 
flag that protects their independence, they make a free will offer- 
ing to the memories of the men who gave their lives to ennoble 
it. The old sectional bitterness has almost passed away. A 
month ago the southern states observed a similar day in honor 
of the heroic dead of the Confederate armies. But for the dif- 
ference of the seasons north and south, the whole country would 
doubtless observe the same day, " with malice towards none, with 
charity for all." There is little dissent now, in any responsible 
quarter, from the moral and legal propositions of Lincoln upon 
which the war was fought and the victory won ; that war was not 
justified to abolish slavery in the states where it was by authority 
of law; that a house divided against itself could not stand, and 
that the nation would inevitably become wholly slave or wholly 
free; that the slave system was a moral evil and could not be 
permitted to enter territory that was free ; that the Union could 
not be severed by the action of individual states, or in any way 
except by amendment of the Federal Constitution in the way 
provided therein ; that he would not " strain the bonds of affec- 
tion " and would not precipitate war, but that the solemn business 
of the President, under the " oath he had registered in Heaven," 
was to " save the Union " and execute the laws in all parts of the 
land. And, whether there is any dissent from these propositions 
or not, there is universal acclaim that the Union was saved, uni- 
versal recognition of the conscientious sincerity and splendid hero- 
isms of both the contending armies, universal respect for the 



25 

graves of all the dead, universal acceptance of the conclusions 
which apparently could be reached by the sword alone. 

The fiftieth anniversary year witnesses a movement marked by 
great earnestness as well as great sagacity and learning, supported 
by large influence and liberal means, and aided by the leading and 
most progressive governments of the world, for the avoidance of 
war through the submission of disputes to courts where the prin- 
ciples of justice may be applied to facts which have been ascer- 
tained with deliberation and scientific exactness. If the courts 
find that the laws have not anticipated such a situation as the 
ascertained facts disclose, then they are expected to lay down new 
laws which will assure the just rights of men and of nations and 
at the same time give civilization the stability and the opportunity 
to uplift itself and go forward. Surely there is no place more 
fitting than this church, and no time more appropriate than this 
hour, for calling the sacred memories of the soldier dead to the 
support of a world movement to promote justice and peace. And 
surely there is no more reverent way for honoring those who died 
for freedom and the flag than by associating their memories with 
the demand that right rather than mere power shall prevail, that 
liberty shall go unhampered until it reaches the limitations of the 
gospel and the law, and that the limitations shall be determined 
quietly in the light of experience and reason, and without recourse 
to the warfare which is " the last argument of kings." 

When the Union was assailed, the great heart of New York 
throbbed strong and true. With all her strength of position, of 
numbers, and of resources, she responded promptly ; and she kept 
abreast of all the other states to the very end. She sent four 
hundred thousand men, one in five of her male population, to the 
army. There were five hundred thousand different enlistments. 
One soldier in every five who sustained the nation came from the 
Empire State. It is not meant that she was more patriotic than 
other states, but she had the men and the money and the position 
and the patriotism which gave her the right of the line in the forces 
that saved the Union. 

Albany has always been a point of the first moment in the 
military view. In the settlement days this city was the center of 
both trade and warfare with the Indians. All through the long, 
bloody century which was required to settle the questions whether 
white civilization or red savagery, whether English or French civ- 
ilization, and whether monarchial or democratic government, were 



26 

to prevail in America, Albany was the point of very first strategic 
importance. All the water courses, all the canoe and bateau 
routes, all the Indian trails and the military roads, all the bridle 
paths and wagon roads, converged here. If these roads which 
have now become great highways of commerce and of pleasure 
could speak, they would tell pathetic stories. Every hamlet along 
their sides has had its horrible tragedy, and there is little exag- 
geration in saying that every rod of the way has been crimsoned 
with human blood. Many times they have witnessed serious 
events of very great national significance. The road from here to 
New York, and particularly the old warpath of the Iroquois, and 
of the French and Indian wars, and of the two wars with England, 
running from here to the Canada line, are by all odds the most 
historically important roadways in America. The possession of 
these roads did not assure the final triumph in Colonial days, but 
there could be no victory for the side that did not hold the Albany 
gateway. 

In the Civil War this city was happily free from the fighting, 
but the rivers and the roads continued, and by that time they had 
been augmented by the canals and the railroads. All the political 
thoroughfares were also wide open and had easy grades to this city. 
Geographical situations and natural advantages joined with the 
potential significance of the capital of the most powerful state to 
make this city a place of prime importance through the contest 
for the integrity of the Union. 

Let us look at the place in that wonderful summer of fifty years 
ago, from the local and inside rather than the general and outside 
point of view. The city had 62,000 inhabitants. The center of 
population had not reached half as far from the river as it now 
has. The center of wealth was below Eagle street. The resi- 
dences of the more prosperous citizens were mostly at the north 
and south ends, well under the hills. The site of this church was 
on the very western border of the built-up city. Willett street as 
well as State street, and Lydius street (now Madison avenue) 
west of Willett street, were bordered by only occasional houses, 
mostly frame. From our church door — if the church had then 
been built — we would have looked out on Washington Parade 
Ground. It had been the militia training field from early days, 
and at that time was the carelessly kept public resort for military 
drills, and firemen's tournaments, and ball games, or anything else 
that demanded room. It was a rather long parallelogram running 



2 7 

along the east side of the present park from State street to Madi- 
son avenue. West of the parade ground there was here and there 
a residence on what is now park ground, a few on the park side 
of Madison avenue, and on the park side of State street there was 
an ancient " burying ground." 

The city did not anticipate the assault upon Sumter. The news- 
papers were not so many as now ; did not publish extras so swiftly, 
and did not carry the news before there was news to carry. The 
first gun was fired upon Sunday, April 14th, just at the break of day. 
The shock was felt here very distinctly. The people lingered in 
the churches and gathered in the streets that morning to talk about 
it. The State officers and leaders in the Legislature met in the 
afternoon and the old capitol was lighted that night. The next 
day the President asked for seventeen regiments of militia from 
New York at once. The Albany regiment left the city on Sat- 
urday. The regiment was off for three months if needed, but the 
war was to be ended before that time. The city was almost beside 
itself with patriotic zeal. Throughout the summer it had the 
aspect and atmosphere, the tension, gayety and abandon, of a long 
military gala day. 

Meetings were held and committees formed. The fife and drum 
were in the air and recruiting offices on every corner. There 
were neither flags in the stores to meet the demand nor cloth for 
the flags which every woman was anxious to make. All the 
children in the school brought their pennies for a flag and staff to 
be raised over the schoolhouse. An enormous flag and staff were 
raised at the foot of State street. The national colors burst over 
and upon the city in a brilliant, beautiful, fascinating shower. 
Nimble fingers pleated rosettes which everyone wore. Even the 
soldier uniforms contributed to the great array of burning colors. 
The " Union blue " was a little time in developing. It took many 
people some time to make the uniforms which were adopted when 
it became too evident that the war would be more than a three 
months' affair. In the meantime the Fourth of July uniforms were 
in vogue. The Ellsworth Zouaves of Chicago had fired the youth 
of the city in the preceding year by their parade through the 
streets and marvelous drill on the parade ground in fantastic 
Turkish uniforms; and baggy red trousers, blue jackets with 
rows of bell buttons, white moccasins, and fez caps were very 
popular. The boys of the city, in companies and even in regiments, 
with as much of this uniform and such show of wooden muskets 



28 

as their money would buy, joined with all the rest to make the 
Independence Day of that gay and eventful summer a day which 
no boy of that period can ever forget. 

Of course the energy and enginery of it all were in the camps 
and the coming and going troops. The railroads and steamboats 
were speedily clogged by the soldier throngs. Often a regiment 
from northern and western New York, or from Vermont, was 
fed at the station. The center of interest in the city was at the 
camp called " the barracks " on the ground where the Albany 
Hospital and the Dudley Observatory now stand. There was an 
old industrial school building there, and with wooden structures 
soon erected it was made to serve the need of the organizing 
troops nearly as well as the tents they would set up on southern 
fields. The field was inclosed by a high fence to keep insiders in 
rather more than to keep outsiders out. The gate was reached 
by a board walk from Madison avenue up the New Scotland road. 
Seven * regiments, largely of the young men of Albany, were there 
organized and prepared to go to the front in that first summer 
of the war. Of course the men attracted great numbers of rela- 
tives and friends, but the place and its activities fascinated all. 
The routine of the camp was interesting enough, but the marvelous 
dress parades and reviews in the afternoons drew those of both 
high and low degree to this center of human energy and interest. 
And the climax was reached when the bugles and the drums 
sounded the advance, and men choked and cheered and women 
waved and wept as these full regiments of citizen soldiers moved 
down the streets and through the throngs to the fields of glory 
and of death. 

We can not now follow these men to the battlefields. But we 
know something of what happened there and how it reacted upon 
those who stayed behind. If the summer of 1861 was something 
of a long gala day, that of 1862 was in marked contrast to it. Bull 
Run sobered the city a little. Many more men and much more 
money were needed. Yet the significance of Bull Run was not 
very well understood. There had been relatively few deaths and 
the resources of the city had not been much affected. But the 
year 1862 with Williamsburg, Hanover Court House, Fair Oaks, 
McClellan's campaign on the Peninsula, Pope's in Northern Vir- 
ginia, Antietam and Fredericksburg, brought many an Albany 
home to want and laid many another in the very deepest sorrow. 
The fair face of the city became serious, somber, even ominous, 



29 

as means became depleted, as the economics and moralities of her 
life became seriously affected, as the best of her sons came home 
wrapped in the flag they had given their lives to defend, and as 
no man could now see when or what the end was to be. But 
Chancellorsville, Port Hudson, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spott- 
sylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign 
were all to follow. The cost of living and the common inability 
to meet it were distressing enough, but the number and frequency 
of the casualties were appalling. 

We can not speak of all the deserving sons of Albany, but we 
recall the leading names and the funerals in which the whole 
city was concerned. There was Major General O. M. Mitchell, 
director of the Dudley Observatory, and of fame as a geographer, 
and Brigadier General James C. Rice, both justly revered for their 
chivalry, their sagacity, and their piety. There was Colonel Lewis 
Benedict, a boy who won first honors in the Boys Academy and at 
Williams College, was both leading lawyer and legislator, who 
came from Libby and Salisbury prisons, sick and wounded, to lead 
another regiment, until his shattered body was brought home in 
the " martial cloak " that was rent by bullets and stiffened by 
his blood ; and there was Colonel Edward Frisbie, of the First 
Baptist Church ; and Colonel William A. Jackson who, perishing 
before thirty years of age, became as well known as his father, 
the long-time and very distinguished professor of mathematics at 
Union. There was Colonel John Wilson, he of the ruddy face 
and Apollo form, who took the Van Rensselaer classical and the 
Caldwell mathematical medals at the same commencement in the 
Albany Academy, and who went from the Baptist Church and the 
Mission Sunday School that his father established at the west 
end, to lead a regiment renowned for its gallantry, until he was 
laid low in battle ; he was a florist, and in the peninsula campaign 
he sent home some flowers he had picked on the picket line only 
five miles from Richmond. There was Colonel Michael K. Bryan 
of the local militia regiment which was in Washington within a 
week from the assault upon Sumter, and who returned in the 
summer to raise another regiment and to command it gallantly 
until mortally wounded. There was Colonel Lewis O. Morris, 
another boy of the Albany Academy and of West Point, whose 
piety and gallantry are both remembered. There was the gallant 
Colonel James P. McMahon, of a fine Irish family well known in 
this city and State, who fell upon the ramparts at Cold Harbor, 



3Q 

with the colors in his hands. There was Colonel James D, 
Visscher, pierced by a sharpshooter's bullet and dying in a minute 
with the words " My poor mother ! God help her ! " on his lips. 
There were Lieutenant Colonels Frederick Tremain and Michael 
Stafford; there were Majors Charles E. Pruyn and George S. 
Dawson, and Edward A. Springstead, and James H. Bogart, and 
William Wallace, and Miles McDonald, and George W. Stack- 
house; and Adjutants Richard M. Strong, of this church, and 
John H. Russell; and there is a long list of captains and lieuten- 
ants — John D. P. Douw, William J. Temple, Augustus I. Barker, 
James Kennedy, Harmon N. Merriman, Edward Carroll, Douglas 
Lodge, John Sullivan, William H. Pohlman, Henry D. Brower, 
the Dempseys, and William E. Orr, and very likely other com- 
missioned officers, whose names I may have overlooked. Every 
one of them had become, through his family or by his own doings, 
prominent in the religious, commercial, or professional affairs 
of the city. And there were so many others who carried muskets, 
who had been very vital factors in the city's life and who perished 
as gallantly as the men who led them. And there were yet so many 
more whose lives were shortened by the hardships of the service. 
The regiments which marched down our broad streets with full 
ranks, and were often recruited up ' to fifteen hundred, or two 
thousand, or even twenty-five hundred men, marched up the street 
at the end of their service with only two or three or four hundred 
men, who had to be tenderly cared for in order to survive at all. 

In a word, this city gave the men, the money, the character and 
the learning which would have sustained all the churches of the 
city and would have sufficed to establish and endow a university 
for the free and liberal education of all the children of the city 
forever. 

But Albany is only a dot upon the map of the Union. Every 
place in every state had its part in the conflict and has its ever- 
continuing share in the good and evil results. The expenditure 
of money placed a mortgage obligation upon the country which 
seems likely to continue forever. There are vacant places and 
soldier graves everywhere in the land. Of the four hundred 
thousand men whom New York gave to the army, the average 
age was only twenty-five, fifty thousand were not above eighteen, 
and a hundred and fifty thousand were not above twenty-one 
years of age. More than fifty thousand perished upon the battle- 
field; twice or thrice that number really gave their lives to the 



3i 

country; and the constitutions of nearly all were weakened by the 
hardships of the service. It cost nearly a million young men, 
north and south, to get rid of slavery. Few of them could be 
carried home to loving friends and honored with stately and 
Christian burial. There are twelve thousand acres of soldier 
graves on southern fields. They were the most virile men we 
had, and their early deaths deprived the nation of preaching and 
teaching, of literature and research, of professional skill 
and industrial energy, of balanced conservatism and commercial 
thrift, that would have enriched its life for an indefinite time; 
and, moreover, it deprives the nation of countless sons and 
daughters who would have been the worthy and vigorous offspring 
of such forceful and self-sacrificing fathers. 

We can not think of all this without emotion. We revere the 
memories of those who " paid the last full measure of their devo- 
tion to the Union." We would avoid further warfare and other 
sacrifices. But how is this to be assured? It can not be assured, 
for men are both fallible and forceful and nations are as fallible 
and forceful as the factors which compose them. But it is an 
ideal to be worked for with singleness of moral purpose and with 
rational appreciation of the difficulties in the way and the methods 
that contain the possibilities of promise. 

For generations sentimentalists have opposed all warfare and 
advocated peace. It has often seemed to the men and women who 
constitute the bone and sinew, and have in their keeping the 
progress of the nation, that these people have had but a poor 
appreciation of what makes peace that is worth having, and that 
they have been searching for something that was hardly worth 
while and have stood ready to purchase it at almost any price. 
Happily, the movement which is now attracting so much support 
in all countries, but which has been distinctly led by this country, 
may be acquitted of any ignorance of history, of the hard facts 
of life, or of rational ways and means which may accomplish 
large ends. And, fortunately, it has gained the aid of the leading 
powers of the world. 

What is peace? There are laws or principles which operate in 
all the affairs of the natural world. They relate to matter and to 
motion, to life and to thought. They keep the world in equilibrium 
but in action. We know little about it, but we can not fail to see 
that there is universal periodicity and harmony and progress in 
all the great factors of the universe. It is undoubtedly as true 



32 

of the mental and moral as of the physical universe. Men are 
subordinate to all that, and at peace when they are in accord with 
it. There can be no peace except upon the basis of universal law. 

If I break my agreement with another it is absurd to expect 
him to do nothing about it, for the sake of peace. The only peace 
there can be depends upon keeping obligations, and one with whom 
I break faith doubtless contributes to the peace of the world by 
requiring me to meet my obligation. The operations of a factory 
may be stopped by a strike. The strike may or may not find jus- 
tification in the inadequate compensation of workmen. There may 
be no violence, there may be quiet, but there is no peace. It is 
only paralysis where there ought to be life and energy on the 
basis of a just division of profits, taking into account the capital, 
experience, risks, managing capacity, skill, industry, and honesty 
contributed by all interested. The Iroquois drove the Hurons to 
the Canadian wilderness and then followed and scalped them all. 
They called it peace : it was only desolation. The English moved 
six thousand Acadians from their home and distributed them 
among the English colonies in America to insure peace. They only 
produced bitterness of which they never saw the end. Peace can 
be predicated upon nothing but rights, energy, integrity, and 
progress. It is the outworking of the divine order. It is not 
necessarily opposed to physical force; indeed, it is often dependent 
upon it. The Pilgrim Fathers had the moral right to come to 
America even though savages resented it. Pioneer farmers had 
the right to move west and break farms and set up churches and 
schools, although it made a trail of blood all the way to the 
Pacific coast. Protestantism and independence had the right to 
uplift themselves in America. All war has not been as wicked 
as some seem to think. At least one side has often been as 
righteous and noble as any activity in history. Washington's 
army was as righteous as the Declaration it made good. Lincoln's 
armies were as righteous as the Constitution of the United States 
they enforced. The right of civilization to live and even to go for- 
ward may be enforced by physical strength. It is in the universal 
plan. Civilization is the concrete expression of justice, of industry, 
of mental and moral progress. 

Unhappily, in every society there are vicious and dissolute char- 
acters who have to be restrained, or wholly controlled; and in the 
family of nations there are buccaneering members who have to 
be ignored, avoided, ostracized, or even disciplined when they 



33 

outrage accepted principles of international law. The propriety 
of the physical force which keeps our homes and our coasts secure 
is beyond all question. This consists of the local constable, the 
county sheriff and his deputies, the city police, the State militia 
or National Guard, and the regular army and navy of the United 
States. This is the police power. It is set up to carry out the 
laws which the people make. It is the orderly carrying out of the 
common will by the common power. We can change these laws, 
we can change the officers who execute them, if change is desira- 
ble. Law is only the gospel and the commandments translated 
into a form capable of application to developing situations in a 
complex and advancing civilization. These laws and these officers 
assure us security of person and property ; and with the other 
attributes of our political system they afford us the free oppor- 
tunity to make the most of ourselves through our own unaided 
effort and through the creation of institutions which will serve and 
uplift all the people: We have no more security in the United 
States than the people have in many other countries ; but in no ether 
country, with the possible 'exception of the little republic of 
Switzerland, is there so much freedom of opportunity. Therefore, 
despite all the energy and ambition and unrest natural among men 
of opportunity, we have, as I think, a more secure basis of peace 
than any other nation in the world. 

The modern peace movement seeks to secure laws that will 
extend this police power which exists within every nation, so that 
it will be effective between all nations. That is, along boundary 
lines and upon the seas, the great international highways. In this 
way outrages, disputes and conflicts between nations will be pre- 
vented, as is the case in our internal affairs. It also seeks to 
secure full and frank discussion of international disputes, arbitra- 
tion where discussion does not suffice, and a ready court of learn- 
ing and character to try international controversies which can not 
be otherwise settled. It is simply making constitutionalism inter- 
national as well as national. 

The only way a law binding upon sovereign nations can be 
made is by treaty agreement. Of course custom may fix, and 
often has fixed, principles of international as well as of national 
laws. Conquest has often done it. But the only enduring and 
conclusive way is by treaty. This peace movement has already 
resulted in many treaties which must go a long way toward 
assuring peace because they have been made between powers of 



34 

the first importance. Other treaties, and much more comprehen- 
sive ones, are on the way. Indeed, the nations now seem to be 
sensitive to any oversight about inviting them into these 
agreements. 

It is the unexpected that happens — at least, things come about 
in unexpected ways. Modern implements of warfare have taken 
out of war the personal elements and such redeeming features 
and influences as it had. Like almost everything else, the thing is 
actually done by machinery. It is now little more than downright 
human butchery by machinery. Interest in it is mainly among 
professional soldiers and sailors who invent or operate the 
machines and men who make and sell the machines. And there 
has to be so much machinery, and it is costing so much, that the 
nations are being impoverished. One of these machines costs 
$12,000,000, as much as a decent university costs, and the military 
people want hundreds of them. They talk much of the probability 
of conflict and the need of preparedness for war. 

in recent years we have been hearing much of that even in 
this country. We have no close neighbors who covet our terri- 
tory: we are free from such complicated and menacing situations 
as the European nations are in. We want nothing to which we 
are not easily entitled, and our diplomacy has always been singu- 
larly open and direct. Yet we hear much of the necessity of our 
preparedness for war. We must reckon with the fact that there 
are large elements in our population who are in favor of war, or 
at least of a preparedness for war. There are officers of the army 
and navy who think most of matters which mean most to them. 
The possibility of war h inciting to the profession of arms. The 
enlargement of the fighting arms of the government means pro- 
motion and distinction, and to have vast armaments without use 
for them seems a waste of efficiency and involves mistakes in 
professional prognostication. So there are organizations in the 
army and navy to promote appropriations and agitate the school 
boys with the attractions of life in camp and on shipboard. Then 
there are influential factors in the community who thrive on war- 
fare or even on preparations for warfare. So the coincidence 
between the prophecy of foreign wars and the pendency of army 
and navy appropriation bills is not so remarkable after all. It 
would seem as though the solid sentiment of the country should 
resent it. 

If I were to meet my friend Adjutant General Verbeck on a 
peaceful May morning, in full uniform, booted and spurred and 



35 

armed to the teeth, I should have to ask what was the matter. 
If he should say he had to be prepared for war for some one 
might assault him, I should assure him that that was absurd, that 
he had no enemy in the world, t'hat every one liked him, that if a 
crazy man attacked him every other man would aid him, and that 
his preparedness for assault was likely to make some lighthead 
crazy enough to make it. If he kept on in this way, it 
would be evident that he required an official inquiry into his 
sanity and that the State, to the regret of everybody, would have 
to look for another Adjutant General. Unthinkable as this is, it 
is no more ridiculous than the monumental demands for fighting 
equipment in the present peaceful situation of the United States. 
The fact is the United . States has never required and does not 
now require preparedness for war. In the light of history the 
assumptions that the nations with military power are only waiting 
to pounce upon a strong and remote people who mind their own 
business, is absurd. And there is less likelihood of the United 
States being forced into war at this time than at any other time 
in our history. The settlement of the country is about completed, 
and the character and relations of our political and religious insti- 
tutions have been substantially determined. Slavery is gone. We 
are all under one flag. We have not two republics, with a possi- 
bility of twenty, between the St Lawrence and the Rio Grande, 
as we might have had if the men whom we revere tonight had not 
succeeded, and we have not the difficulties that would have arisen 
between the vigorous and ambitious peoples in so many sovereign 
republics. We have union as well as liberty, and it is the ark of 
our security and peace. Our relations with other nations are salu- 
tary. Foreign powers are not disposed to war with us. Our coasts 
are now secure enough against freebooting, and they are too 
remote for assault by any power, great or small, at least without 
unthinkable provocation. There is no peril, perhaps for very dif- 
ferent reasons, on either our northern or our southern borders. 
The nation is not going to cross the seas to pick quarrels with 
other nations. We are not seeking empire. We are disposed to 
bear our share of the world's burdens, but it is doubtful if the 
sentiment or the conscience of the country would sustain a war 
waged for the privilege of training remote peoples in the system 
of government which means so much to us. What we need to do 
is to attend assiduously to our own business and go on developing 
our political institutions so that they may endure and afford 
2 



36 

opportunity for the yet more complete and luxuriant outworking 
of our intellectual, our religious, and our industrial freedom. 

It is fitting that such a nation should lead the movement for 
world peace, and it is a jewel in the crown of the Republic that 
she leads it so generously, so ably, and with so much weight of 
legal learning and official influence. 

In a few months we shall look out from our church doors upon 
a noble and beautiful monument which the city is erecting out of 
respect for our soldier and sailor dead. It will honor the dead, 
and it will honor the living too. It will speak for the dead to the 
living, and it will speak for freedom and union, for law and order, 
for conciliation and concord, for equipoise and energy and pro- 
gress, for the " peace on earth and good will toward men " which 
the angels proclaimed nearly two thousand years ago. 

And, after all, purposes are stronger than statutes and feelings 
go further than treaties. The spirit and teachings of Christianity 
constitute the surest, indeed the only, bond of peace and progress 
that reaches around the world. 



LINCOLN IN HIS WRITINGS 



LINCOLN IN HIS WRITINGS * 

In the thought of the world Lincoln grows greater and greater 
with the passing of the years. The universal interest in all that 
concerns his career becomes more and more acute. The quest 
for information about all he did and all he thought has been 
incessant and untiring and ingenious. It can not be that there are 
many more incidents of his life to be discovered and sustained 
by good evidence, although it is likely enough that further search 
for the information which justified and the intellectual processes 
by which he reached well-known conclusions will be rewarded. 
Probably all the physical facts associated with his life that will 
ever be known are already known. The rest depend upon the 
reasoning of the judge and are matters of opinion. 

To my mind there does not appear the slightest sign of popular 
reaction which a few have thought they saw. The common 
thought of the people dismisses many stories that have been related 
of Lincoln, and discounts much that has been said of him, and 
steadily deepens in its appreciation of him. The simple facts that 
are well known appeal more and more to the feelings of the mul- 
titude. It is not those things which are doubtful or mysterious, 
but the simple and sober facts of his modest and serious life and 
the irresistible outworking of his logical mind, that make the 
character of Lincoln more and yet more impressive with the 
unfolding years. 

In this little book we are to set forth the greatest of his 
writings. They will be placed in chronological order. We shall 
see that he dealt with a definite though somewhat comprehensive 
subject. It involved the legal phases of his country's doings about 
African slavery. All else that he did bears only upon the person- 
ality of an interesting because unique character, and is subordinate 
to and far below the doings which place the progressive world 
under obligations to him. We shall see that associated with the 
extreme plainness of the man and the marked simplicity of his 
life there was logical reasoning that is inexorable and unanswer- 
able, expressed in a literary st)de that has of itself impressed the 
world and is distinctly and completely his own. And we shall see 



1 Introduction to the Lincoln volume of the Gateway series. 

39 



40 

that his legal reasoning crystallized and solidified, and that his man- 
ner of expression became yet more chaste and strong and dis- 
tinctive as he moved on from the opening to the culmination of 
his career. 

Seeing all this we necessarily ask the reasons for it, and we must 
find them not in the mysteries but in the verities of his life. One 
must now look upon Lincoln according to his own lights, his own 
views of men, and his own understanding of events. The simple 
view of a simple life, which through its very simplicity and its 
singular opportunity became great, is likely to be the truer one. 

In childhood Lincoln was poor, deplorably poor. His father 
moved easily and was certainly unsubstantial. It is quite apparent 
that more and better than this may be said of his mother. The 
boy grew up tall and lank, but sinewy and strong. He lived almost 
wholly in the open, and engaged in the vocations of the farm, the 
country store, and the nearby river. He was at times exclusive 
and moody, and at other times he mixed freely in the primitive 
games and discussions of the neighborhood. He was never devoid 
of humor. He was aggressive enough even in his youth to make 
an early impression upon a rude civilization. His absolute honesty 
was always acknowledged. His spirit was warm in its kindliness, 
exact in its sincerity, and reverent toward the higher things of 
life. From first to last he was a very plain American boy and 
man, intensely human, and he was always in political and profes- 
sional activities which often make flaws or find fissures in human 
nature. But the most penetrating search into all he did has re- 
vealed no selfishness or guile among the splendid ingredients of his 
character. 

He was educated. Any other view would be absurd. Of course 
he was without the finish and polish, the superficial artfulness, 
which too many think the exclusive evidence of education ; but, 
better than that, his mind was trained into an efficient machine. It 
could gather and digest facts and draw conclusions and express 
them in a convincing way. Surely that is education. He was 
self-educated. He went to school but little. What he learned he 
dug out himself, and he dug out not a little but a great deal. He 
brought himself to square with knowledge that was exact. He 
knew as much of mathematics as any one in his region. He mas- 
tered grammar as well as mathematics. He was much interested 
in such exact development of the natural sciences as there had 
been up to his time. He read Shakespeare and Burns. He had a 



4i 

propensity for poetry, particularly the " little sad songs," as he 
called them. He developed a phenomenal memory, could recall 
all he had read, and repeat verses and passages almost word for 
word. So his mind became not only trained, but stored. He ac- 
quired rich intellectual stores, and he also acquired the power to 
draw upon and use them. Relatively speaking — and the whole 
world is relative — he became intellectually wealthy and noted 
in the region round about for his mental powers and resources. 

The further progress of his career was orderly and natural. 
There is little of the mysterious, and nothing of the supernatural, 
about it. It may be summed up in a sentence. He knew the 
fundamentals of the law and the groundwork of society; he liked 
politics ; he became an expert on the relations of slavery to the 
political philosophy and institutions of the Republic; he foresaw 
the only attitude which his country could take upon that question 
and endure ; he was able to make that plain to plain people : all 
the rest " did itself," for it was only the necessary result. 

Lincoln was a fine lawyer. He tried many cases and argued 
many appeals ; he had a large measure of professional success. 
He did not insult the judge, browbeat witnesses, quarrel with 
counsel, anger the jury, get beaten and then mislead and swindle 
his clients. He had care about the causes he espoused, but when 
he took up a burden he carried it to the end of the journey. There 
were not so many precedents in the law books in his day as now, 
and not so many law books. He would not have paid very much 
attention to them, if there had been, any more than the very 
great lawyers do now. His legal reasoning was of the kind that 
could stand alone. He knew the sources, the philosophy, and the 
spirit and intent of the law ; and this knowledge, with his powers 
of application, carried him to an invulnerable position as to the 
justness of his cause. Seeing that clearly, he used all plainness 
and exactness of speech to compel the court or the jury to see it 
as he did. 

Whether or not Mr Lincoln was a " politician " depends upon 
the definition of the word. He was unquestionably fond of public 
life. He clearly enjoyed political campaigns. He looked after the 
selections of delegates, the nominations of candidates, and the 
declarations of conventions. He was a member of the Legislature 
several times, and of Congress once. He went through a long and 
notable canvass of Illinois for the office of United States Senator 
and was beaten by Senator Douglas. But it never occurs to any 



42 

one that all this was because he wanted office. It was all in con- 
sequence of his interest in the political life and health of the 
country. It was because his legal and logical mind tended very 
naturally to the making of laws, and became expert upon the 
political structure of the Republic. He was chosen to the presi- 
dency because he was the first to reconcile the moral feelings of 
the greater number of his countrymen with the fundamental laws 
of the country upon the momentous question of slavery; because 
he first declared the attitudes which the Republic must take upon 
that subject if it was to endure. The inherent sincerity of the 
man, his fascination for political philosophy, his new and definite 
position upon the slavery question, and his remarkable gifts in 
writing and speaking his opinions, forced him into the forum, and 
carried him to the presidency, in spite of the fact that he looked 
upon public life as something of a drawback and disadvantage to 
himself. 

And what was his attitude upon the burning and consuming 
question of slavery? He was born in a slave state, understood 
the Southern people perfectly, and had much in common with 
them, but he believed that no man should " eat his bread in the 
sweat of another man's brow," and hoped for the time when " all 
men everywhere might be free." There were good men, and 
many of them, who would abolish slavery, at once, by law and if 
necessary by force, on the ground that it was an unmitigated evil 
and could justly be treated in no other way; but Mr Lincoln was 
not one of them. He did not localize responsibility for slavery in 
the South. He held, and truly, that the whole country had in the 
beginning participated in the evil, that it was legally recognized and 
approved by the convention which framed the Federal Constitu- 
tion, and that if this had not been done there would have been no 
" more perfect Union." He saw that economic conditions had 
defeated the common hope that slavery would dwindle and perish, 
which was indulged by the fathers of the Republic. He thought 
that, whether repugnant to moral sense or not, the laws of the coun- 
try conferred a legal right of property in slaves, and that laws were 
to be respected so long as they were laws. His lawyer-mind saw 
that slave owners had property in slaves which was given to them 
by the laws of the country, and he was opposed to taking this 
legal right away from them without paying them for the loss they 
would sustain. He was reluctant about taking it away, even with 
compensation, if without their consent. Moreover, he foresaw 



43 

that it was not possible to pass and enforce laws doing away with 
slavery, without bloodshed and without the real danger that the 
Union might be dissolved and democratic progress receive a blow 
from which it might not recover in generations. Therefore he 
was opposed to the forcible abolition of slavery at the time. So 
far as rights in slave property had been given by law, he would 
uphold them. As to slavery in the slave states, he would wait. 

But slavery was more aggressive than freedom. Under one pre- 
text or another, and with one plan of procedure or another, it 
sought to enter free territory. Its spokesmen were able, its sophis- 
tries were specious, and its determination was of the kind which 
realizes that its very life is at stake. It was coming to be that the 
atmosphere of the world was charged with the feeling that human 
bondage was a moral wrong and was doomed. The inconsistency 
of it in a new world republic dedicated to the principle that all 
men are entitled to equal rights under the law, was humiliating. 
It was beginning to look as though either slavery or freedom would 
have to go, in America at least. The expansion of the spirit of 
freedom only exasperated the slave system and made it more 
desperate. If the country was to become all slave or all free, the 
slave states were determined that it should become all slave. For 
half a century, in one way and another, it had been able to main- 
tain at least a voting equilibrium in the Senate between slave states 
and free ; it had managed to have a president from the South, or a 
" northern man with southern sympathies," practically all that 
time; and it had secured, perhaps not so illogically as the North 
thought, the decisions of the Supreme Court which extended legal 
rights over slaves taken into or fleeing into free territory. 

All this and even more the North was disposed to acquiesce in 
reluctantly, rather than force a course which any could hold to be 
the unjust cause of a sectional war. But when Senator Douglas, 
of Illinois, the great leader of the political party that for half a 
century had been dominant in the nation, cast aside the compro- 
mises and agreements which had been the doubtful basis of a 
semblance of peace for a generation, and secured legislation giving 
slavery the legal opportunity to enter the free territories — the 
common lands of all the people — and thus acquire the political 
control in the nation and a preponderance of votes in the Senate, 
Lincoln shattered the sophistry of the senator and set the stakes 
beyond which, war or no war, slavery ought not to be allowed to 
go by so much as the breadth of a hair. He did it in a state in the 



44 

politics of which Douglas had been absolute master for a score of 
years; in a political campaign which took every last voter of the 
state into consideration; and with a result which showed that con- 
victions were looking for opportunities to limit if not ..destroy the 
slave system, and which made the new tribune of the people the 
logical and inevitable candidate for the presidency. The returns 
of the presidential election withdrew eventualities from the hands 
of lawmakers and replaced them in the hands of the God of truth 
and freedom, as well as in the hands of the God of battles. 

So much it has seemed necessary to say to recall to the reader's 
mind the setting of Lincoln's addresses and state papers. The 
purity of his literary style is entrancing. His effort to make what 
he wanted to say plain to any understanding in the fewest possible 
words is always apparent. Before he reached his zenith he had 
read many of the standard authors ; he was fond of poetry ; he 
could quote by the hour; but he drew upon literature hardly at all 
to embellish what he wrote and what he said. He had been a stu- 
dent of law and of politics, and was familiar with all that had 
been said upon the question of slavery; he had read the fathers of 
the Republic, and was familiar with Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, 
as he certainly was with Theodore Parker and Giddings and 
Greeley and Seward and Sumner; but he called none of them to 
the aid of his writings and his speeches. The substance of all he 
said was that slavery was fundamentally wrong ; that while it might 
be tolerated within existing territorial limitations it must not be 
allowed to extend over an inch of free territory; that the progress 
of the world demanded that the union of the states be preserved 
at whatever hazard ; that he would not bring on a war to abolish 
slavery, but would resist one to sever the Union ; and that all the 
rest was necessarily in the keeping of the Almighty. 

If Lincoln did not ornament his writings with quotations from 
the great orators and authors, he did not blemish them by the arts 
of the demagogue or by the use of the commonplace. Of course, 
before he came to the presidency his work was with a plain, hardy, 
pioneer people, and his illustrations were of a kind which would 
illustrate to them. But there was nothing of the commonplace in 
that; it was precisely that which trained his great power to express 
his convictions in ways to compel all people to understand. He 
had a keen sense of humor, and it helped him. He knew more 
anecdotes than most men, and in conversation he had no trouble 
in recalling one to aptly enforce his point ; but he used them not at 



45 

all in his writings and most sparingly in his political addresses. 
In the great joint debates with Senator Douglas, neither of the 
speakers related a story. 

Lincoln had no thought of producing " literature," although all 
he said and wrote makes fine reading now. His early political 
speeches show not a little ridicule and irony, a directness of thrust 
and a quickness of repartee which are of course absent from his 
later state papers, but there is nothing which might better have 
been omitted. Although his responsibilities became heavier and 
his words correspondingly serious as his career advanced, there is 
a uniformity of outlook and method and style from the beginning 
to the end of his career; and there is also a steadily growing con- 
secration to a cause which was pathetically and completely crowned 
by the manner of his death. 

To the graver and more stately public addresses which are best 
known we have added several more informal addresses to delega- 
tions, with which the people are much less familiar, and a consid- 
erable number of letters, of which by far the most people know 
nothing at all. To my mind these less known papers, hastily pre- 
pared and without thought of such use as we are making of them 
now, prove Lincoln's superior mind and magnanimous soul even 
more completely than do the more dignified state papers which are 
better known. They also go even further to show that his master- 
ful and distinctive English style was a common habit. His grasp 
of fundamental principles never hesitated, his logic never faltered, 
his good, pure expression was as common as any other habit of 
his life. 

The selections for this book have been made in the hope of 
exemplifying the uniform strength and beauty of his writings 
from the viewpoint of literature, and the compelling convictions 
and vital reasoning which did more than all else to make them so. 
From the very beginning his words were marked by much feeling, 
guided and governed by the clearest and closest legal reasoning; 
but with his coming to the presidency they are enshrouded in un- 
avoidable pathos and sorrow, and throughout his administration 
they are bowed down with the griefs of his suffering country and 
countrymen, while they are uplifted by his trust in God and his 
unyielding confidence that democracy shall in some way endure. 
And what wonder, when of all men he realized that the acceptance 
of his reasoning and his conclusions meant war; when better than 
any other he knew that his inauguration, and the consequent dis- 



46 

charge of official duty as he saw it, made a dreadful war inevitable 
and immediate; and when his faith in the justice of the cause, in 
the great mission of the country, and in the overruling guidance 
of the Almighty was of the kind that made it necessary to go for- 
ward. In the light of all this he must be read much and often to 
be even partially understood. And he must be understood by his 
country if the country is to grow in strength, for it was given to 
him above other men to lay the legal and moral foundations of its 
strength. 



THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION IN THE 
UNITED STATES 



THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED 

STATES x 

In a special sense education has had a development in America 
very unlike that in other countries. It is not necessary to look far 
to find the reason. It is in the inherent qualities of the people who 
crossed the wide sea in great perils to make new homes in a wilder- 
ness, and it is closely related to the remote, isolated, and independ- 
ent situation which they came to occupy, as well as in the political 
and religious views which they came to hold and the relations that 
at first they sustained to the home governments which they set 
up for themselves in their new homes. One may rather easily see 
differences which distinguish the school systems of the American 
states from those of other countries, but he will be at a loss to see 
why those differences came to be or to understand what they really 
mean, unless he searches out the history and inquires into the 
motives of the people who were responsible for them. 

The first settlers in America had to depend upon themselves. 
They doubtless expected that whatever was accomplished they 
would have to work out for themselves. Certainly all the known 
facts lead to that conclusion. With no understanding of what the 
circumstances were to be or of the difficulties they must encounter, 
they must have reasoned, in a brave way, that they were going to 
improve their situations, according to their understanding of what 
that would mean. They could have expected very little from gov- 
ernment, because the governments of which they were subjects 
were selfish organizations, having enough to do to maintain them- 
selves, and with little interest in their subjects beyond the perpetua- 
tion or extension of their own power; and also because they 
were unreliable if not rebellious subjects. The Pilgrim fathers 
came to the bleak Massachusetts coast mainly for freer religious 
privileges. They had fled from England to Holland for that 
reason, and had come from Holland to America to prevent their 
absorption by the Dutch. Apparently they would not have been 
able to reach America but for the aid of commercial speculators 
who received their compensation out of many years of labor of 
those whom they had aided. The Puritans who settled at Massa- 



1 Written June, 1911, for "The Foundation Library for Young People." 

49 



5o 

chusetts Bay came to America because of differences with the 
English government, which dominated both the state and the 
church, over questions relating to religious and political matters. 
Doubtless they came with a view to larger freedom, but mainly 
because they were in the minority in England; and it is clear 
enough that they came without expecting to separate themselves 
from the English political or religious systems, and also without 
looking for support from either of them. The English govern- 
ment was indifferent about them, but was naturally interested in 
English colonization. The first Dutch settlers came in the employ 
of the Dutch West India Company for the furtherance of trade 
and commerce. 

In neither case was any fresh educational motive or any new 
plan about schools involved. There was no change whatever in 
the thought of either of these groups of early colonists about 
schools, for years after they made their homes in the new world. 
They intended to continue doing in the new world just what they 
had been doing in the old world about the education of their chil- 
dren. They did so continue until their democracy grew free and 
forceful and exerted its quickening influence upon education. 
Transition over the sea did not of itself create in these people a 
purpose which was not a factor in their plans when they moved 
out of a well-settled environment into an inchoate and unformed 
one. The Dutchmen continued to be Dutchmen, and the English- 
men continued to be Englishmen, just as long as they could. They 
expected to continue the ways of Dutchmen and Englishmen about 
weaving and farming and teaching and everything else, with the 
possible exception that they hoped to have their own way a little 
more freely about managing their religious matters and about the 
forms and ceremonies and other arrangements in their churches. 
They had no conception whatever of the new religious, political, 
industrial or physical development which has since then made 
America what it is. Many writers, not excepting many historical 
writers, have said much in apparent oblivion of that 'fact. 

So the first American settlers did the altogether natural thing so 
far as schools were concerned. The Pilgrims did nothing for at 
least fifty years after landing. They let little that they did go 
unrecorded, and there is no record whatever of any school in the 
Plymouth Colony until after 1670. The Dutch at New Amsterdam 
did organize schools very soon after there were enough of them 
there to set up any kind of a government or do anything else that 



5i 

required organizing and managing. They had been accustomed in 
Holland to free primary schools as well as universities, for through 
the successful struggle for independence from Spain they had 
gained some of the attributes of democratic self-government. When 
they settled in the new world by the assistance of, and to carry on 
the business of, the Dutch West India Company, and also to give 
the Netherland Republic a colony in the new world, they were 
enjoined to set up schools as well as churches. Schoolmasters were 
a part of the governmental establishment of Holland. The little 
colony at the mouth of the Hudson asked that schoolmasters be 
sent over, and they were sent over. They organized and main- 
tained many schools in the first generation of the colony, and at 
least one of those schools continues to this day. The Puritans at 
Massachusetts Bay organized Harvard College before they did an 
elementary school. That too was logical. It was setting up the 
English plan. That plan trained the favored few for the offices of 
the church and state, which were all one in New England as in 
Old England; and the Puritans were content if the rest learned 
enough to read the Bible, which a good many of them failed to 
do. For long years a great many never acquired the power to 
write their names. There is no evidence of primary schools in the 
Massachusetts colony for many years after the settlement. A 
" Latin school " was set up soon after the college and as a feeder 
to it, and in a generation or two other " Latin schools," with like 
motive and plan, were established in the villages that sprung up 
around the country; but generations of New Englanders had to 
come and go before there was any realization, or indeed any con- 
ception, of the independent and common school, managed by the 
civil state without domination by the church, in which all children 
had equal rights and identical opportunities. 

W T hile the little light of democracy was flickering in the rather 
inhospitable new world socket, the teaching of the children in 
secular as well as religious matters was left to the churches. The 
ministers were dominant in all the affairs of the people. They 
were the best educated men in the community and had peculiar 
standing and prerogative through the interdependence of church 
and state. Their influence over political policies was decisive and 
they had theories, which not only banished those who differed with 
them from the colony and sent them to the wilderness and the 
savages, but also consigned their souls to lakes of brimstone which 
were already on fire and which they confidently predicted would 



52 

burn forever. The theories of these men being widely, almost uni- 
versally, accepted in a theocratic civil government, their influence 
was decisive. Of course they were men of lofty character, and it 
is more than possible that an ignorant people had better be under 
such influences than weaker ones. In any event, the clergymen 
held the education of the people in their hands from the beginning 
to the end of the colonial period in America. 

The world ideals of education were low, and surely they could 
not be otherwise among a people who were almost wholly without 
books, who had to struggle with all their might for bread, and 
who were not only continually harassed and many of them 
massacred by Indians, but were also engaged in constant and 
bloody wars which were to settle whether savagery or civilization, 
whether the English or the French kings and systems of govern- 
ment, or whether democracy and independence should prevail in 
the land. All through this long and trying period the minister 
went from house to house making his pastoral calls and incidentally 
seeing to it that the children were taught to read. That was a 
duty which he told the parents devolved upon them. If they 
could perform it and did not, he was unsparing in his censure be- 
cause in his view if the soul of the child were lost it would be 
their fault. If they could not do it, he made some arrangement to 
have it done by a neighbor if that were practicable, and if it 
were not he probably did it himself. This system very naturally 
grew into parish schools under the minister's charge and often 
taught by him or his assistant. In this way the teacher of the 
school often came to be an assistant to the minister. Certainly the 
teacher was appointed by the minister or with his approval. Of 
course, whatever was done in the school must have his approba- 
tion, for it had to conform to the doctrines and theories of the 
church over which he presided with a spiritual purpose and an 
autocratic power which no ordinary mortal dared question. 

It must not be supposed that these parish schools were worth- 
less. Of course, they would make a very sorry comparison with 
our modern schools, but the minister was, in nine cases out of ten, 
the best educated man in the village and often he was a classical 
scholar. The school was a primitive one, to be sure, but very often 
it drilled in the elements of power so thoroughly that the child 
was well equipped for the simple life he was to lead. And the 
life he was to lead was one which often did much to sharpen his 
perceptive and observing faculties, as it certainly did much to 



53 

establish industrial habits that were both regular and educative. 
The school was small and each child had the advantage of the 
close attention of the teacher and, almost without exception, the 
teacher was a young man or woman of excellent quality and 
ambitious purpose who was directly and keenly interested in the 
proficiency and well-being of each child. 

But these schools were " few and far between." They were 
necessarily limited to the small hamlets that had grown to be large 
enough to support a church. There was not much living far from 
the hamlets and villages through the colonial days because of the 
danger from Indians and wild animals. The whole country was in 
danger from Indians until after the Revolution. The people had 
to live together to protect themselves, and of course it would have 
been impossible for children to go far from home in an unsettled 
country in order to attend school. Moreover, there were no schools 
and could be none outside of the little settlements, and there were 
no safe highways for travel. So the colonial schools in America 
were very few, and what there were had departed very little from 
the circumstances and character of the schools in the old countries 
from which the people or their ancestors had come. 

This was so not only because the habits and thinking of the 
people were very fixed and slow of change, but more particularly 
because of the control of the home government over the affairs 
of the colonies. The English government had become practically 
supreme and universal in all the colonies before the Revolution, 
and that government was opposed to any system of schools for 
the free and liberal education of all the children of the people. 
It adhered, of course, to the educational policy which prevailed, 
and for practical purposes still prevails, in England. That policy 
trained the children of the favored class through fitting schools 
and colleges for service in the church and state, or with a view 
to an idle sort of life in aristocratic society, and in very simple 
primary schools it taught the children of the working classes to 
read and write, but it was distinctly opposed to educating the 
masses very liberally, for fear that they would learn and exact 
their natural rights. That policy kept the poor down quite as 
much as it helped the rich up, and it was insisted upon in America 
quite as much as in England. There was little trouble in carrying 
out this policy in New England where the English feeling and 
outlook were strong, but in New York where the Dutch influence 
still prevailed, there was frequent conflict between the Dutch 



54 

colonial legislature and the English royal governor over schools 
for all the people. Taking all things together, it is not at all 
strange that in all America there were, prior to the separation from 
Great Britain, only a half dozen weak colleges, with a small num- 
ber of fitting schools or " academies " in the larger or more pro- 
gressive towns for the more well-to-do, and a weak but respectable 
primary school under church influences in the villages for the chil- 
dren of the masses. 

These schools had no organic relationship and not much in 
common. Each was wholly dependent upon its own constituents 
and a law unto itself. No one ever thought of state support for 
elementary schools. The home government gave no moneyed sup- 
port to colonial schools. A colony had, in several instances, given 
some aid to a colonial college, but the academies and primary 
schools had to depend upon the support of those who patronized 
them. The usual rule of support was that each family should pay 
ratably according to the number of days the children of the house- 
hold attended the school. Indeed, it must be said that this manner of 
support continued for many years after independence was attained. 
There was no acceptance as yet of the doctrine that all the prop- 
erty of the people is pledged to educate all the children of the 
people. But national independence was to change all this, slowly 
and hesitatingly at first and then rapidly and forcefully. 

With national independence there came a new national feeling. 
The long war which gained independence had pretty nearly over- 
thrown all the schools that were in operation, but it had also 
monopolized the thought of the people. All thought was upon 
military success; and the hard times, enormous debts and scarcity 
of money, made plans for intellectual progress, for the time 
being, impracticable. But with independence there was responsi- 
bility, and the people were nearly all of a race that rises to respon- 
sibility courageously. With a buoyant spirit and a hopeful out- 
look, they realized that now there could be no European inter- 
ference with their educational plans, and also that if they had any 
they would have to make them themselves. The few colleges were 
reopened, academies were rehabilitated and more were established, 
and the elementary schools began to take shape and form again. 
The momentous work of developing a national system of schools 
was begun. 

Of course it had to go slowly, for there was none to copy after. 
It is doubtful if the people would have copied any other system 



55 

anyway, for it was long years before they were disposed to ap- 
prove anything in Europe, no matter how much merit it might 
have. But there was no system in Europe which could be adopted 
in whole, and there was not much in the European systems that 
was adaptable to American ideas. A pure democracy, and par- 
ticularly one that was rather conceited and bumptious, had to have 
a school system of its own. To evolve such a system it had to 
move with uncertain steps, make mistakes and profit by them, and 
be guided by needs that could not be anticipated. Democratic gov- 
ernment had to unfold slowly and wait long before it could know 
what it wanted or what it could do in the way of schools. 

It is now nearly a century and a half since independence of old 
world government was declared. About one-half of that period 
was required to develop schools and weld them together into some 
sort of a coherent system, and the other half has been occupied 
in making that system responsive to the continually advancing 
ideas of people who have been steadily enlarging their political 
power and have been intent upon using it to suit themselves. Up 
to the middle of the nineteenth century the aim was to establish 
schools within reach of every home, and the homes were being 
made upon new land, not only in the old states but in the new states 
that were being formed all the way to the Pacific coast. It had 
become more and more safe to live somewhat widely apart, for 
the Indians had been subdued, and dangerous animals were rapidly 
destroyed. The people very generally appreciated the need of 
schools, but of course there were many who did not feel very 
keenly about it, and many more who could not distinguish between 
a good school and a worthless one. The oversight of the minis- 
ters was now being withdrawn because people of different denomi- 
nations were settling the new territory and objection was being 
made to sectarian influences in the schools. The state governments 
began to do some things to encourage the spread of schools, 
although it was hard for them to realize that they were bound to 
do much more than encourage the people to maintain schools by 
giving them a little money and sending them some benevolent 
advice. But they created state school funds and distributed them 
to schools on the basis of attendance of pupils or of expenses 
incurred by local communities. This involved the keeping of 
records, and the collating and publication of them, and comparisons 
appealed to local pride and roused public sentiment. School dis- 
tricts were formed and laws relating to the character and course 



56 

of the schools began to be enacted. Long before 1850 some rather 
definite steps had been taken to assure reasonable qualifications 
on the part of the teachers. In the New England states this was 
done in a very indifferent way by requiring the sanction of the 
" school committee " or the " selectmen " of the town, or of the 
minister or a committee of ministers ; in the Middle States school 
commissioners or superintendents issued licenses to teachers but 
often these licenses were issued as a matter of favor, political or 
otherwise, and very frequently there was no examination and no 
capacity for holding an examination. The whole system was 
crude, but still sprung up wherever settlers established their homes. 
The people managed the affairs of these schools for themselves by 
meeting annually or oftener in " school meetings " for that pur- 
pose and by appointing trustees or directors who transacted the 
business of the districts between meetings. In this way the people 
were themselves trained in public business and their interest in 
affairs of common concern was much augmented. By this means 
also the schools became knitted together into a system, and the 
relations to other schools which they came gradually to sustain 
were helpful to each. The affairs of all the schools were more 
and more regulated and the whole system gathered both coherency 
and enthusiasm. 

In later years we have erected more imposing schoolhouses, 
developed a more highly educated and uniformly trained teaching 
force, increased greatly in the number of pupils, and so created 
an infinitely more substantial school system than we had through 
the middle years of the nineteenth century, but there is no period 
in the educational progress of this or any other country more 
interesting to the student of education, and none reflecting more 
honor upon the people concerned in it, than the period which 
witnessed the full and virile maturity of the old order of schools 
and saw them as they were coming, without knowing it, to the 
transformation into the new order. Those schools were both the 
products and the servants of a primitive but still a high and 
aggressive civilization. To appreciate either that civilization or 
its schools one must remember that it was essentially comprised 
of people of Anglo-Saxon blood, with strong religious feeling and 
seasoned industrial habits, breaking a new land and bent upon 
upbuilding an intellectual empire and a political estate which should 
be the ample proof of their wisdom, or the wisdom of their 
fathers, in moving out of an old and settled civilization into a new 



57 

one which they could shape to their ov/n satisfaction. Those 
people were essentially an agricultural people. Freed from the 
harassing conditions of both white and Indian warfare, they had 
spread over large areas of farming and forest country and they 
had been made hardy, both in body and mind, by the fact that 
they had had to defend themselves against dangerous foes and get 
their living out of an often unconquerable soil. It was before 
the time of much railroad development. There were not many 
attractive towns and little to lead the most ambitious young men 
and women to think that they could better their situations by going 
away from home. The literature they read, and they did read, 
would seem dry to this generation, but it was good intellectual and 
moral pabulum, and there was little in it to disturb the attach- 
ments which all had for the local situation. The families were 
large and there were live boys and girls in plenty. So there had 
to be schools in reach of every house, and the district schoolhouse 
became the center of innumerable activities of a culturing and 
stimulating character. 

The schoolhouses by the roadside, two or three miles apart, 
or certainly at every crossroad, were one-room, weather-worn 
affairs. At the time of which we are speaking they were ordinarily 
clapboarded structures painted red ; and so gave rise to the phrase, 
" the little red schoolhouse," which all real Americans cherish. 
Sometimes there was a line of white up and down the corners 
and along the eaves, in response to the natural trend toward colo- 
nial architecture, but there was nothing more in the way of adorn- 
ment. But no one would be struck with consternation if it had 
never been painted at all, or if that had been done so long ago that 
no vestige of color remained. Indeed, not infrequently these 
houses were of logs or stone. It made little difference, for the 
interest was in what was doing rather than in the building in 
which it was done. The old house was not very often replaced 
with a new one because there was little money in the neighborhood 
and old things were made to do until they could do no longer. So 
the house, inside and out, bore the markings of divers generations 
of boys and girls who had to find some way for making them- 
selves remembered to the generations that were to come after 
them. 

The furnishings were plain enough. The desks for both teacher 
and pupils had been made by a carpenter. At first they were strung 
along the walls, but later they were set across the room in two or 



58 

three rows. They were sufficiently inclosed to cover up as much 
skulduggery as boys fell into, and that was often considerable. 
There was a wooden blackboard standing upon a rickety easel or 
hung upon the wall. A wood-burning stove stood in the middle 
of the room, or a little back from the center, and in the corner 
there was a mop, a broom, and a " patent pail" with a tin dipper. 
The boys kept up the fire in cold weather, and as a reward for 
being " good " the favored children were allowed to go to the 
nearest neighbors for a pail of water, morning and afternoon, to the 
end that the childish thirst might not become fatal. When the warm 
days came in spring, teacher and pupils would break the routine 
and make a spurt and clean the schoolhouse. 

There were two classes of teachers who taught and two classes 
of pupils who attended these schools. In the summer a young 
woman, commonly the half-grown daughter of a near-by farmer, 
taught primary children, and in the winter a stalwart young man, 
very likely from out of the district, taught stalwart boys and 
buxom girls. The teaching in the summer time was necessarily 
confined to the "A B C's " and a little printing upon a slate. The 
textbooks were few, crude and unattractive, but the whole world 
is relative and when children know of nothing better they get a 
good deal out of what they have. In the winter there was more 
serious work in more ways than one. The teacher had to be able 
to teach school and he also had to be able to keep school, for he 
had pupils who were mentally alert and physically strong. The 
teaching extended into every subject and went as far in every 
subject as there was any one in the district to demand. If the 
teacher could be balked on any abstruse proposition in the natural 
or mathematical sciences, he needed to move into another district, 
if he could find one that had not heard of his misfortune, and 
there take time for brushing up. But he had other than intellectual 
pitfalls. Every teacher who took a new school for the winter well 
knew that he would have to settle it very soon whether he could 
control the school. Often this was a question of physical strength. 
It was no uncommon thing for the bigger boys to combine in an 
attack upon the teacher, and often the teacher was put out of the 
schoolhouse or even " ducked " in a snowbank. So the school- 
teaching not only called for young men and women who were 
alert and forceful, both in body and mind, but it gave them the 
very best training they could have wished to have. 

But the school itself was by no means all there was of the 



59 

district school. It was the center of all sorts of neighborhood 
gatherings. Prayer meetings were held there nearly every week, 
and it was wide open to political meetings with the recurring 
campaigns. Many a coming statesman got his first real practice in 
expounding the political gospel in the district schoolhouse, and 
many a political leader learned his first lessons about organization 
in manipulating the affairs of the country school district. And 
there were " spelling bees," and singing schools, and debating 
societies, and whatever else could provide a little intellectual ex- 
hilaration to a people who loved it, and could provide some excuse 
for the boys and girls getting together. 

All in all the district school, taken in connection with the round 
of work at home in which every member of the family had to 
have a part, provided an excellent training for the life which its 
patrons were to live. Indeed, it went so much further than that 
in a great many cases that it trained not a few men for leadership 
in the great affairs of their state and country. Its " courses of 
study " were not laid out very scientifically ; it did not lead to 
schools above; its teaching was marked by more substance than 
" methods " ; its discipline^ was often fitful, and punishments were 
commonly absurd and sometimes brutally severe ; but it trained 
boys and girls for the life they were to lead, and it inspired many 
a one to strong advances into the great things of life ; and, on the 
whole, it met the needs of an exacting people living in pioneer and 
primitive conditions much better than the schools which now have 
so much in the way of sumptuous embellishments and professional 
management can meet the requirements of the more complex 
civilization of later days. 

Until after the middle of the last century there was little apart 
from the simple school in the " little red schoolhouse " for nearly 
all American children. The schools in the villages were not unlike 
those in the farming districts except where the village had grown 
to the importance and dignity of establishing an " academy." Of 
these there came to be a few in the important towns which were 
somewhat aided by small state appropriations in some of the states, 
and which gave some advanced instruction in mathematics and 
began instruction in the ancient languages. They were, in almost 
every case, fitting schools for particular colleges, in so far as 
they prepared pupils for college at all, and they had the cordial 
sympathy of the colleges to which they influenced their pupils to 
go. Some of the academies made some point of preparing teach- 



6o 

ers, and in some cases they secured state aid for this work. But 
their main support had to come from tuition fees, and very often 
they were obliged to augment the tuition fees by instruction in 
the elementary or primary branches. These institutions were 
mainly for boys. The colleges accepted no students but boys. 
As an offset to this there was a development of " female semi- 
naries " by teachers who thought they saw an opportunity to aid 
girls and make a living, and some of these gained considerable 
renown. Here and there in the cities a " business school " was set 
up to train boys in business methods, and some of these attracted 
and helped considerable numbers. But the " district school " was 
the main reliance of more than nine-tenths of the people until the 
rising intelligence and the advancing democracy of the nation 
broke out into a new movement of national, and of even inter- 
national, significance. 

That was the evolution of public high schools. These tax- 
supported institutions, rising above the district schools, constituted 
the popular offset to the more aristocratic if not more exclusive 
academies. The academies were, in the nature of things, aristo- 
cratic, even though they did not wish it so. There were but few 
colleges, and only the sons of the well-to-do went to college at all. 
Institutions that fitted for college were, in consequence of that fact, 
exclusive. Classical learning was not at all usual and institutions 
that provided it were necessarily somewhat exclusive. And the 
tuition fees were also exclusive. In a word, the academies 
were in a very considerable sense appurtenances of the 
colleges : they had been pushed down among the people by the 
colleges in order to secure students for themselves. The time 
came when all this was a little irritating to the masses of 
people who began to look for a means of providing for their 
own children the training which their more well-to-do neighbors 
found for their children in the academies because they were able 
to pay for it. They found it in high schools supported and man- 
aged by the public the same as the elementary schools. They were 
" common schools " just like the district schools, and they opened 
their advantages to girls as well as boys. There was vehement 
opposition in many quarters to charging such an expense upon the 
public treasury, but it was soon established that it was within the 
political and constitutional power of the people to do this if they 
wished, and before long a high school found a home in every con- 
siderable town or village. It caused the overthrow of many of the 



6i 

academies, because the high schools ordinarily became quite as 
efficient as the academies, and not many people would pay for 
instruction when they could get quite as good without charge. 
Many academies became the public high schools of their towns or 
districts. But good high schools, which fitted for college and also 
for life work as well or even better than the more exclusive insti- 
tutions had done before, came into being in every considerable 
community without reference to whether an academy had been 
there before or not. 

The results were many and decisive. Education was uplifted 
throughout the country. The high schools reacted in a most 
stimulating way upon the elementary schools. Their pupils began 
to look forward to going to the high school as they had not 
thought of going to the academy, and their teachers were forced 
to the necessity of systematic courses and exact teaching which 
would prepare their pupils to sustain themselves in the high schools. 
There was a new " yardstick " above by which the work of the 
elementary schools must be measured. 

The high schools became " connecting links " in making an 
American system of education. Before they came there had been 
an hiatus, a break in the road, which prevented the far greater 
number of children from going beyond the elementary schools. 
The academies did not reach the masses. In four-fifths of the 
territory there were no academies; in the one-fifth they were not 
free schools, as in the very nature of things they could not be. 
Of course, free schools of grade sufficiently advanced to prepare 
for college or for a stronger part in a manner of life that was 
steadily becoming more complex, had tremendous effects upon 
the educational system and upon the thinking of the people. 

One of those effects was to increase the attendance at the col- 
leges and create more colleges. That in turn developed real uni- 
versities. There was not a real university in the United States 
before the latter half of the nineteenth century was well ad- 
vanced, although there were several institutions which called them- 
selves such. The difficulty was that the people of the country were 
not yet ready to support a real university, and educational senti- 
ment in America was possibly not yet very conversant with what 
must be the attributes of institutions that had good right to use 
the name. 

The high school evolution went further than anything else to, 
create a new type of university, a really democratic university 



62 

as well as a real university, in the United States. That was the 
state university. Of course, there were so-called state universities 
in the newer western states before the high school movement 
amounted to much. It was usual for the newly formed states to) 
provide for a state university in their constitutions. But they 
amounted to nothing more than fair' colleges, and sometimes to 
nothing more than a fair high school, until energized and expanded 
by the conjuncture of the high school evolution with federal aid 
to higher learning provided by the Congressional land grant act 
of 1862. These two helps coming together worked out great 
universities, managed and supported by the public, in all the newer 
states. Of course they shaped their work to meet the thinking 
and minister to the vocations of the people. And of course they 
shocked the classically hidebound leaders of the older and endowed 
and more exclusive colleges of the East. All the same, they went 
on proving that learning might well concern itself with things that 
related to modern times and that might uplift living men and 
women by helping them to do better the work they would have to* 
do. They admitted students upon their diplomas from the high 
schools. Some students failed in their work, but they had the 
" chance " which Americans love ; if they failed it was their own 
fault; certainly there was no exclusiveness or favoritism, no keep- 
ing students out because they could not pay tuition fees, or retain- 
ing students when they could not do their work simply because 
they could pay fees. Then, too, the state universities charted out 
the work of the high schools, shaped their courses, and inspected 
their teaching. Rapidly they trained teachers for all the schools 
below them and particularly for the high schools. They " ap- 
proved" high schools which met their standards, and local pride 
required the high schools at least to advance to the point where 
they would be " approved " by the universities. The endowed 
universities had to bend to all this, or expect that great, strong, 
free universities would be established within a few years and not 
many miles away. Indeed, that has been done in some cases, so 
the educational system has been made continuous; not only four 
more, but eight more, grades above the elementary schools have 
been added to it ; the educational system has been made much freer, 
both pedagogically and financially, from bottom to top, and in the 
older states as well as in the newer ones. 

There is another factor than the evolution of high schools which, 
at least at the beginning, was peculiar to America, and has had an 



63 

uplifting and consolidating influence upon American education. 
That is the superintendence by experts. It grew out of the state 
aid and the support by local taxation. Where the money of the 
people went their management had to go. Schools supported by the 
public had not only to meet public sentiment, but they had to be 
worthy of the public. This could be assured only through the 
oversight of professional superintendents with very considerable 
powers. The system, as to states, was commenced in the State of 
New York in 1812, by the creation of the office of state superin- 
tendent of common schools ; and as to cities it was inaugurated 
in the city of Buffalo in 1837 by the creation of the office of city 
superintendent of schools. There are now such officers in all the 
states and in practically all the cities and larger villages, but it 
was not until long after the middle of the century that they came 
to have sufficient authority to be efficient. They have much to do 
with certifying, employing, and supervising the teachers ; with 
making the courses of study, and with the progress of pupils 
through a systematic course of study until a definite goal is 
reached. It must be said too that this system of professional 
supervision has been extended, with more or less completeness, 
into the rural districts. Indeed, there was a county or township 
supervision of the schools at a very early day — in New York as 
early as 1795 — but it was upon the business rather than the 
educational, or at least the professional, side of their activities. 
In more recent years nearly all the states have made serious efforts 
to give to the country schools the advantages of professional super- 
vision which the cities and towns enjoy. Nothing has contributed 
to the upbuilding and the efficiency of individual schools, or indi- 
vidual systems of schools, and also to the uniform excellence, 
solidarity, and comprehensiveness of the whole educational system 
of a state, so much as this management by the most experienced 
teachers and the most successful professional administrators. 

Next to the growth of high schools and the consequent growth 
of colleges and universities, and the very complete organization 
of the system of professional supervision, American education is 
probably indebted to the multiplicity of voluntary educational as- 
semblies. We are a people who love to travel, and the railroad 
companies are not at all adverse to the gratification of our passion. 
Indeed, if we show any lethargy in that direction, they are quick 
to stimulate us with attractive propositions. Not only do the 
teachers in every city and county have organizations which meet 



6 4 

regularly, but in every state there is a teachers' association which 
holds annual meetings, calling together from one thousand to 
five thousand teachers, and the National Education Association 
meets every year with an attendance of from five thousand to 
thirty thousand teachers. An American teacher thinks nothing of 
traveling a thousand or three thousand miles to attend an educa- 
tional convention. The longer the distance the better the teacher 
is suited, so far as the fatigue or discomfort of travel may be 
concerned. The expense is provided for long in advance and 
cheerfully paid for the sake of the knowledge of the country and 
the enthusiasm of the large crowds and the stimulus of the leading 
teachers who speak at the convention. 

It would be wholly unjust to imagine that these meetings — 
local, state and national, are mainly for the mere love of journey- 
ing. That is of course a factor but it is not the controlling factor. 
The larger factor is the conscientious purpose to lose no advan- 
tage which will contribute to the knowledge and efficiency of the 
teacher. It has been drilled into teachers that they can not get 
to or keep at the front of the teaching service unless they attend 
these conventions and see and hear the leading teachers. In the 
older states they are sometimes a little disposed to question it, but 
in all the newer states they never doubt it. In all the states west 
of the Allegheny mountains it is usual to see three or four thou- 
sand teachers at a state meeting. They pay their dollars and 
engage the most interesting speakers in the country, and they 
come early and stay to the end that they may not lose a word. 

These voluntary meetings of great numbers stir enthusiasm 
and disseminate ideas in a marvelous way. Each city is bound to 
have the latest ideas, and each state does what it thinks it can do 
to keep from getting behind any other state. As a result, self- 
energizing and self-expanding vigor permeates the whole educa- 
tional system. And out of this, quite as much as out of the intel- 
lectual or professional or industrial demands of the country, there 
have grown schools of every kind and of every grade. 

No sketch of American education would be at all comprehensive 
which failed to notice the sharp advance which has been made in 
the last quarter century in uplifting and multiplying the learned 
professions. In that time most of the states have established both 
the preliminary educational requirements which candidates for the 
professions must meet before being allowed to enter professional 
schools, and also the professional courses which they must com- 



65 

plete before being allowed to enter the State professional exami- 
nations. The trend in recent years has been overwhelmingly in 
the direction of training in professional schools rather than in the 
offices of practitioners. Indeed, the demand of recent years has 
been for training in schools that are taught by paid teachers who 
are not engaged in professional practice rather than in schools 
carried on by practitioners. This has given decided impetus to 
professional schools and produced unprecedented growth in reve- 
nues, faculties, equipment and students. All the leading universi- 
ties now have professional schools of nearly every kind that are 
very well provided for; and independent professional schools, of 
more or less worth, have sprung up in all the centers 
of population. Out of it all there has arisen the imperative neces- 
sity of regulating and approving schools that are believed to be 
capable of providing, and show the disposition to enforce, a train- 
ing for each of the professions which the state can think consistent 
with the progress of its intellectual and professional life and the 
protection of its people against charletans and scamps ; and of out- 
lawing and prohibiting schools that seek the money of the people 
without a return which the state can accept as a reasonable com- 
pliance with what it is bound to demand. 

The ambition of the young men of the United States, and to 
some extent of the young women also, to enter the learned pro- 
fessions, seems to be almost universal. It is clear enough that 
it is an ambition which ought to be curbed and directed, for the 
professions are overcrowded, and many who manage to enter 
them would find happier and more profitable employment in an 
industrial or commercial vocation. In very recent years much has 
been done in the best educational states to guide pupils in the 
public schools, and others, into industrial employments, or at least 
to provide the facilities for industrial training and to correlate 
them with the ordinary schools, so that there need be no excuse 
for the mistakes in choosing life work which a great many have 
manifestly made. Schools for general industrial training in em- 
ployments where many workmen work together and use much 
machinery, and also schools which train workmen for individual 
employments carried on by their own unaided hands and with 
their own tools, and for classes of work in which both girls and 
boys are interested, have been authorized in the public school 
systems of many states, and in some cases they have been encour- 
aged by direct state appropriations. The central idea of this new 



66 

movement in industrial education must be distinguished from that 
of the manual training movement of a generation ago. The manual 
training movement was regarded as an aid to general culture, 
or its motive was the quickening of intellectual acumen and grasp; 
while the motive of the new movement is nothing short of the 
training of workmen who will do things with their hands. Of 
course the training of their heads is not neglected, and it is as- 
sumed that the training of their hands will train their heads also; 
but the point is to train skilled workmen in the confidence that 
that will both enlarge the happiness of the people and the prosperity 
of the country. 

From what has now been said, any boy or girl ought to be able 
to see that it is not necessary to make serious mistakes or to go 
ahead blindly in the matter of choosing and preparing for life 
work. The facilities are all at hand, or will be by the time the 
candidate is ready for them. All he has to do is to take the next 
step by thinking about what he would like to do and by laying hold 
of the helps that are close at hand and that lead in the direction 
of his tastes. In a little time he will know better what to do and 
he will find other aids. By the time he comes to the place where 
the roads part he will be likely to know whether he wants to go 
into law, or medicine, or civil engineering, or electrical engineering, 
or cabinet-making, or plumbing, or a cotton factory, or a watch 
factory, or a locomotive works, or something else. He can aid 
his choice by looking around and peering into things and talking 
with people. And when he has acquired the feeling that he would 
like and can succeed at some particular thing, he can easily find 
out how long it will take and how much it will cost to prepare 
himself for that vocation. The teachers in the schools are only 
too glad to converse with pupils about such matters ; the managers 
of factories are ordinarily very considerate in affording informa- 
tion to young inquirers who go about it in a civil and polite way; 
and the presidents and registrars of universities, colleges and 
schools will fall off their stately chairs rather than disencourage 
prospective students from coming to them. 

Perhaps it ought to be said that the men and women succeed 
most completely in the long run, who lay the broadest foundations 
early in life. So it may really be a gain to go through college 
before taking a course in a professional school, even when one 
may enter the professional school without first going through col- 
lege. Even though one feels that he can not afford the expense, 



6 7 

it may be better, if he is in good health, to borrow the money 
and secure its payment by an insurance policy upon his life, 
or it may be better to take time to earn the necessary money, 
before going to college or during the college course, than to go 
without it. While there are plenty of men and women who have 
succeeded much more strongly without going to college than many 
have who have graduated from college, the presumptions are alto- 
gether in favor of the college training for one who is in real 
earnest about making the most of himself. But it is better to look 
the ground all over, send for the catalogs of the schools and 
perhaps visit them and see what they are doing, before committing 
one's self to a plan that means so much time and effort and money. 

Not only do schools of every grade and for every purpose invite 
the attendance of pupils, but there are schools which instruct pupils 
by correspondence and without expecting their attendance. No 
one would claim that a pupil is likely to progress in this way as 
satisfactorily as by attendance, but such as can not attend may 
accomplish a great deal by correspondence. One may have a choice 
of courses in these schools, then the lessons are assigned and 
questions answered by letter, and examinations held upon papers 
sent by mail. It is not the best way to get an education, but an 
earnest seeker after knowledge may find a good deal of it in this 
way. 

The actual extent of the American educational system can only 
be shown by statistics, and the figures are so large that it is difficult 
to appreciate them. In the common schools of the United States 
there were employed, in the year 1908-9, 506,040 teachers. That 
is, there were more teachers in the public schools than there were 
people in the cities of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Omaha, Nebraska, 
taken together. 

There were in the public elementary schools 16,643,149 pupils, 
and in the private elementary schools 1,316,900 pupils. There were 
in the public high schools, 863,026 pupils, and in the private acad- 
emies, 171,801 pupils. And there were in the public higher insti- 
tutions, including universities, colleges, and professional schools 
of all kinds, 152,768 students, and in the endowed higher institu- 
tions 178,647 students. Taken together, there were in the elemen- 
tary schools 17,960,049 pupils, in the secondary schools 1,034,827 
pupils, and in the higher institutions 331,415 students. There were 
in public institutions 17,658,943 pupils and students, and in the 
private or endowed institutions there were 1,667,348. Of each one 



68 

hundred, 92.9 are in the elementary schools, 5.3 in the high schools, 
and 1.7 in the advanced institutions. About 1 in 5 of all the people 
of the country are in the elementary schools ; about 1 in 90 are 
attending high schools; and about 1 in 270 are going to an insti- 
tution of higher grade. The attendance upon all American schools 
in the year was 19,326,291 different persons. 

To see what a host this means, let us say that if all the college 
students were to march in a procession, in pairs, and three feet 
apart, the line would extend more than 94 miles, and farther than 
from New York to Philadelphia. If the pupils in the high schools 
were to march four abreast they would make a procession 147 miles 
long and extending farther than from Philadelphia to Washington. 
If the children in the elementary schools were to march four abreast 
and three feet apart, the line would extend 2551 miles. And if all 
who are attending school in the United States were to form a 
grand procession, four abreast and three feet apart, it would be 
grand indeed, for the line would extend 2745 miles, or about as 
far as from New York to San Francisco. 

To show the trend in American education it may be said that 
the percentage of pupils preparing for college in the high schools 
has been steadily declining in recent years. Twenty years ago 
about 15 in every 100 pupils in the public high schools intended to 
go to college, while now only 5 in 100 are planning to do so. The 
same fact appears in the private academies, although the percent- 
ages that are naturally larger. Twenty years ago 27 in every 100 
pupils in the private secondary schools were preparing for college, 
while now there are only 16 in 100 who are doing so. Very possibly 
the percentages have been affected by the extension of the second- 
ary schools into new territory, and into classes of work that were 
not formerly carried on in the high schools ; but in any event it is 
clear enough that the American secondary schools are not in any 
exclusive sense college preparatory schools. It must be said, how- 
ever, that of all who enter the high schools, both public and private, 
about 10 in 100 graduated twenty years ago and about 12 complete 
the course now. Of those who graduated from all the middle 
schools, about 35 in 100 went to college, and the number has not 
varied materially in twenty years. But the rather significant fact 
appears that the percentage of graduates from public high schools 
who go to college has been steadily increasing in the last twenty 
years, while the percentage of graduates of private academies who 
go to college has been as steadily decreasing. It is not possible to 



6 9 

follow this interesting phase of education further in such a paper 
as this, but surely we have seen enough to make it clear that 
democracy, the power and the intelligence of the common people, 
is working its way out in America as it is in no other country in 
the world. 

It could not be otherwise, for the government, the dominating 
and controlling influence in our schools, is thoroughly democratic. 
We have spoken of the professional superintendence which the 
laws of the states have extended over all the public schools, but no 
one will imagine that this is at all likely to overthrow, or to come 
into any conflict with, the lay element in saying what they shall do. 
The people say what they shall do and pay for having it done, and 
the professional experts say how it may be done best, and look 
after getting it done. 

In America the sovereign educational authority is with the states. 
Nothing was said about it in the Federal Constitution, and no au- 
thority over schools has ever been delegated by the states to the 
United States. The Federal government has made many and noble 
gifts to education, and has sometimes prescribed the conditions 
upon which they might be secured : it provides for training men 
for the army and navy, for teaching the Indians and other depend- 
ent classes in the territories and the island possessions over the 
seas, but it has never invaded the exclusive power of the states 
to educate their own people as they see fit. The states legislate 
upon the educational instrumentalities which the people demand. 
This legislation is imperative because the public school system 
rests upon the power of taxation, and that is a sovereign power, 
and the state governments alone exercise that power for the sup- 
port of common schools in the several states. 

But the legislation of the states reflects the popular feeling and 
the common progress, and the states race with each other to keep 
in the lead upon a matter which has come to be very nearly a 
universal passion in the United States. And, however much the 
powers to do things in connection with the schools must proceed 
from the governments of the states, those powers are exercised by 
the people in their local assemblages or by officers chosen by them, 
or appointed by officials chosen by them, at popular elections. The 
school government is the most democratic government in America 
or in the world. Very commonly the constitutions of the states re- 
quire the state legislature to see to it that there is an adequate 
system of schools " wherein all the children of the state may be 



7o 

educated." Under these provisions the system of education be- 
comes a state system, and is not left to the mercies of the city, 
county, or township authorities. All the territory of the state is 
divided into districts which are made to conform to the circum- 
stances of population. Ordinarily they are very small: in many 
states there are ten or twelve thousand of them; but the cities are 
school districts too, and so they may be very large or at least very 
populous. In the case of cities, the school district is governed by 
a board of education, sometimes elected by the people but more 
commonly appointed by the mayor, not because such appointment 
is a city function but for convenience and because the appointments 
can not be made by so many people without mixing the matter 
with party politics or municipal business, and it is desirable that 
they shall be made by some general officer who has been chosen 
by the people to a conspicuous and responsible position. In the 
country the schools are governed by trustees or a board of edu- 
cation chosen by the people at annual school meetings, where it 
is practicable to do it in that way ; or, where it is not, the choice 
is made at an election held apart from an election for other pur- 
poses. In the same way the taxes are levied for buildings, the 
salaries of teachers, and all the ordinary expenses of the schools. 
The government of the schools is therefore wholly in the hands 
of the people so long as they show a disposition to maintain suit- 
able schools, as they ordinarily do. They may elaborate their 
schools indefinitely. It is only where they are indifferent that the 
state steps in and insists upon the maintenance of schools which 
conform reasonably to the requirements of the state constitution. 
The local school authorities manage the business of the schools 
just as they please, so long as they manage it honestly and with in- 
tent to realize the purpose of the laws under which they exist. They 
appoint such teachers as they like, so long as they name those who 
have the educational proficiency exacted by the laws and the state 
system of education. And the requirements and limitations of the 
laws only express the intelligence, and the intent of the majority of 
the people of the state. So it may truly be said that the American 
system of education is distinctly a unique national system and 
that it is particularly expressive of the spirit and purpose of the 
masses. 

Of course there are educational instrumentalities outside of the 
schools, and of course many of the schools carry their activities 
far beyond the boundaries of the school grounds. We are a nation 



7i 

of readers, and libraries in great numbers, and some of vast pro- 
portions, minister to our demands for information and for the 
literary treasures of the world. The daily, weekly, and monthly 
periodicals and magazines cater to our tastes, both good and bad. 
We love the public assemblage and are fond of the public speaker. 
We are interested in music and the drama. We are a nation of 
travelers, and have little difficulty in finding ways for getting about, 
both at home and abroad. All these instrumentalities, associated 
with a remarkably active life in an exceedingly complex civiliza- 
tion, train the intelligence and exert their influence upon the char- 
acter of the people. But the schools loom above all the rest in 
importance, for they prepare the ground and give the opportunity 
to all the others. 

The American system of education has been evolved out of the 
intellectual progress of an active, ambitious, self-conscious people. 
That people has become great in numbers by accessions from all 
the peoples of the earth, and their educational system has received 
many valuable contributions from the schools of all lands. But 
the initiatory influences were the very best that the world had to 
give, and the predominating control has at all times been in hands 
that were actuated by Christianity and law and order ; that were 
guided by a sincere love for security and stability, as well as for 
freedom and progress. The American people have been quite self- 
centered and independent enough ; they have adopted little from 
other countries that would not be to their advantage ; what they 
have taken they have adapted to their physical circumstances, 
religious independence, and political self-consciousness. They 
have, for the most part, created their own educational philosophy 
and institutions. And what is more, they have been determined 
that every one of their number should have as free an opportunity 
as every other to get the utmost that that philosophy and those 
institutions can give. They are offering more in the way of edu- 
cation to all the people than any other nation in the world. The 
road from the beginning of the system to the end of it, is more 
open, continuous, and free to the children of the multitude than is 
the case in any other land or in any ether plan of education. We 
undertake to do so much for all that it is quite true that we do 
some things less exactly and completely than some other peoples 
do the same things. But our educational system is glorious in its 
democracy, its all-embracing hospitality, its flexibility, its adaptive- 
ness, and its aggressiveness ; it is gradually becoming so well 



72 

articulated and coherent that no one need be lost in it or need fall 
out of it; and it has already become so far-reaching, scientific, and 
efficient that none need go out of the country to find about all that 
the best schools of the old world have to offer. 

To be sure, it would be absurd to say that the time has come, 
or will ever come, when we have nothing to learn from other 
countries or other systems of education, but there is no longer 
need of such humility or of such adulation of things far away as 
to fail to see that we have educational privileges that are more 
far-reaching and universal than those of any other people, and 
that we have much to give to, as well as much to ask from, the 
scholarship of other lands. So much at least we must believe, 
because it is the vital groundwork of that further educational 
progress which the nation confidently expects. 



THE JEWELS OF THE NATION 



THE JEWELS OF THE NATION x 

Properties are beyond the counting: jewels are but few. Prop- 
erty values are settled by the common laws of trade: jewel values 
are fixed by rareness and richness and by appreciation and attach- 
ment. A jewel is often priceless : its worth can not be expressed 
in money. An heirloom handed down from father to son, from 
mother to daughter, something of exceptional cost at the first and 
made precious by associations, becomes the family jewel that de- 
serves the name. But there are jewels enough that never had and 
never can have commercial value. Thus the world responds to 
the longings of the human heart. All literature shows abundantly 
that jewels have a stronger hold upon sentiment than upon sub- 
stance, upon feeling than upon fact. Truth, mercy, justice, gen- 
erosity, the " old armchair," the " clock on the stairs," the " old 
oaken bucket that hung in the well," perhaps even the children, as 
Cornelia said, become the precious jewels of minds that are clear 
and of hearts that are sincere, and of rich and poor alike. It is 
with nations as with men and women. Lands, and palaces, and 
battleships, and crests, and diadems, and swords, gathered through 
the tortuous history of the throne, become the vaunted jewels of 
the crown ; but the things that engage the affections of the human 
heart and give power to human progress become the priceless heir- 
looms of the people. 

When our Republic was born, an hundred and thirty-five years 
ago, it was hardly more than a " five pound baby," but a little baby 
has great possibilities and this one had a long head and a shrill 
cry which quickly gained attention. Three millions of people were 
widely scattered over an obdurate soil, between a long and dan- 
gerous coast and a yet more dangerous human enemy that had 
reddened many a hearthstone upon the frontier with the blood of 
the wife and children of the pioneer or that of the pioneer himself. 
All beyond was fresh from the hand of the Creator, and almost 
unknown to men of Caucasian blood. Vast mountains, noble rivers 
and lakes, wild and dangerous game, an Indian village here and 
there, trails along the levels, two or three military forts and Jesuit 



1 Address given at Lake Mohonk Mountain E ouse, Mohonk Lake, N. Y., on 
Independence Day, 191 1. 

75 



76 

missions, were all that had been found by the armies, and mis- 
sionaries, and explorers, sent to annex empire to European thrones. 

But the little nation was not without breeding that had given it 
quality, or experiences that had hardened its arms. It had statesmen 
and they laid the keel of a ship that would stand a mighty strain. 
The stars upon the flag have increased from thirteen to forty-six. 
Territory has expanded fourfold and population thirtyfold. A 
continually gathering people have had a steadily enlarging domain. 
They have never kept their talent in a napkin. Moving west, they 
found riches in the acres and they extracted a good part of the 
richness from the acres. The western people say that the Atlantic 
States would never have been occupied at all if they had not been 
settled before the people learned what a country there is out west. 
Riches have been taken from the mountains as well as from the 
prairies. Great cities have grown in a surprising way. The map, 
all the way to the Pacific, has become black with towns and rail- 
road lines. Capital is plentiful and commerce is quick-witted and 
abundant. A growing passion for universal education has placed 
a school for every purpose and suited to every mind within reach 
of every home upon the soil. Churches have multiplied, and, better 
than that, they have lived in unequaled peace. And not only has a 
church and a school, a mill and a store, a factory and a bank, 
sprung up in every settlement, but the common power has given 
security to person and to property everywhere and has provided 
every manner of institution that could promote a highly organized 
and exceedingly complex civilization in every quarter of the land. 
But these are only the possessions, the mere properties, rights, and 
privileges of the people. It is hardly worth while to repeat the 
story of their acquisition, for it has been so often told that it is 
trite and commonplace, almost gross, to dwell upon it. The nation, 
like the families that comprise it, has treasures not seen, jewels 
not well understood by others and not capable of measurement in 
commercial valuations. 

First of these is the fundamental character which the nation in- 
herited from the Saxon race. The Saxons were no gentle folk. 
They lived in the forests and grappled with a rough sea. They 
were strong-bodied, stout-hearted timber, rooted deep in the soil of 
nature. Long-haired, cold-blooded, gluttonous, grim hunters of 
men they were. Serious, stiff-necked, sullen, they led lives that 
were little cheered by sentiment and song. Of literature and art 
and architecture they produced almost none: certainly only a few 
shreds have come down to us, and if any had deserved it would 



77 

have survived. They seem to have been more like the old Hebrews 
and to have seized more strongly upon the Hebraic laws than any 
other modern people. But they contributed to the world a hardy, 
unbending character which was more affected than that of any 
other modern race by a Christianity, and most certainly by the 
Old Testament Scripture, that was unsentimental, serious, sublime. 
That was enough for one race to give to recent times. When it 
migrated to Britain it took that character with it and kept it intact. 
It has stood through the ages. It loved freedom and it had faith, 
and it let neither go. Through three centuries of Norman conquest 
it held to its landed rights, its freedom of movement, and its 
faith. Of course it was affected by contact with the more imagina- 
tive, the more light-hearted, the more accomplished, the more pro- 
ductive Latin race, but in the essentials it remained unchanged. 
It mixed in marriage and in language; its sullen nature yielded a 
little to the New Testament, to literature, and to the arts; but it 
deepened its roots in the soil and never let go the rights which as 
English commons it had acquired. In the end the face of the 
composite race and the work of its hands, the habits of its mind 
and the expressions of its heart, the form of its language and the 
sublimity of its faith, were essentially Saxon and not Norman. 

This great race first laid the foundations of constitutional gov- 
ernment, and through the long centuries since it mastered its 
Norman " masters " it has maintained them. It made the meanest 
of the English kings write guaranties of the inherent rights of men 
in Magna Charta at Runnymede. Singing Puritan hymns, its cav- 
alry rode to victory over the king's troops at Naseby and Dunbar 
and at Marston Moor, and then it struck off the head of the king 
himself. It was all for the sake of liberty as it understood the 
term. It came w T ith English puritanism to America. It was in 
the English grenadiers and the Yankee volunteers who forced the 
landing at Louisburg, and who scaled the heights of Abraham. 
So it determined that America, as it had before determined that 
Britain, should be a Saxon rather than a Gallic country. Only a 
little later it was predominant among the American farmers who 
saved English liberty from the British grenadiers and the British 
government itself, in the American Revolution. That race and its 
institutions give the larger part of strength and security to the 
Republic now. The attributes of the Saxon race, which are the 
inherent qualities of English puritanism, make a unique diamond 
brooch, of stones not overwrought, that reposes in the jewel box 
of the American Republic. 



73 

There is a string of pearls that keeps fair companionship with 
that Saxon brooch. It is composed of the lighter, more captivating 
qualities of the people who overran but never conquered the 
Saxons, and of the other peoples who cultured the manners with- 
out corrupting the character of the English commons either in 
Old England or New England. The Normans have the right to 
the center of the string. At the Conquest they were the most pro- 
gressive people in the world.. They were not so hardy as the 
Saxons, but more ambitious. They wanted better food, houses, 
dress, amusements. They had more imagination, wit, and humor. 
It was well all around, and of peculiar advantage to themselves, 
that their poetry and their plays had to deal with the realities of a 
stubborn people who kept their hands upon the hilts of very broad 
swords. Public knowledge and public morals gained. The result 
was the Englishman of modern times. But the Saxon in him was 
always predominant. It was long, long years before his experi- 
ences trained him into a citizen who could assimilate with people 
who were unlike him, or exercise political power with considera- 
tion for others than his Saxon race. It was not accomplished 
before he came to America. Even in New England he needed to 
have docility, and humanity, and political rights and religious free- 
dom for others as well as for himself, and a system of jurispru- 
dence, and imagination, and ingenuity, and music, and painting, 
trained into him. Many peoples from many lands did this, and 
the qualities that did it make the fair string of pearls. 

There is no implication that the Saxon had all the honesty and 
no culture, and the rest all the culture and no honesty. But it is 
not too much to say that the Saxons contributed to our English, 
and later to our American, life by far the larger share of that 
inherent and unyielding character without which culture is of no 
account and democracy is impossible. They trained much of that 
character into many peoples with more culture and less firmness of 
character, while they were themselves gaining inspiration from 
those whom they were training. Together they were blending 
order and stability, aspiration and opportunity, into the character 
which has made the Republic what it is. All these qualities are 
expressed by jewels of very great, though of possibly unequal, 
worth. 

Independence is another of the nation's heirlooms. We have 
become a greater people and have accomplished more because we 
acquired it. The habits of life in all parts of the world and all 



79 

the activities of civilization have been invigorated by American 
independence and sovereignty. This contains no reflection upon 
Britain. British justice might have been saved without separation. 
We had real grievances, but it is quite possible that they might 
have been redressed without war. We had the stiff necks of the 
Saxons, plus the substance of English puritanism, plus that acumen 
of mind which is natural to life in a new world; we had the 
stubbornness of the Englishman and rather more than his ver- 
satility in creating occasions and making excuses; we stated our 
grievances as strongly as the ablest men of the eighteenth century 
could, and we put upon an honest but stupid king, and upon a 
fatuous political administration, the alternative of retreat or of 
war. Britons seldom retreat, and so there was a war of seven 
years, and independence. But all this was only opening the door 
to the inevitable. In one way or another independence was to be. 
There was some dubious knowledge about the fact, and there may 
have been some dissembling about it; but, whether we knew it or 
not, we wanted it; we had to give reasons for taking what we 
wanted, and the ablest statesmen found excuses that sufficed to 
make the Saxon and the Puritan and the New England conscience 
fight for the independence that had to be. 

It had to be in order to prepare the way for the overwhelming 
fact of modern history — the evolution of a new and mighty 
nation with a republican form of government, in America. The 
colonial policy of Britain was more arrogant then than now. The 
lesson of the American Revolution sunk deep into British national 
policy and brought to the colonies and dependencies which con- 
tinued under her sovereignty such measure of independence as 
would contribute to the growth and the self-respect of each, and 
thus to the greatness of the whole, without much further menace 
to the unity of the Empire. But the resistless future forbade all 
compromise in the case out of which that lesson grew. Nothing 
but absolute independence, complete self-responsibility, entire free- 
dom of initiative, and flexibility of plan, could invite and assimi- 
late the peoples of the world, or initiate enterprises of which 
Britain had never dreamed. Separateness alone contained the 
seeds of the national self-expansion which was due in America. 
It had to precede the Federal and state constitutions which make 
legislation very free, and yet avoid the dangers of it by creating 
the power of veto in the courts, a device which British lawyers 
would have prevented if it had not shocked them into insensibility. 



8o 

And it had to precede our always free-flowing stream of statute 
law, which some deplore but which has afforded democracy its 
opportunities to propagate the intellectual and industrial activities 
of the country. Yes, entire independence was the breath of life 
to the unfolding of a democracy in America and to the progress 
of democracy in the world. It had to be. It was for the good of 
America, and Britain, and all the world. It is a fine jewel in 
the box. 

Equality of right and of opportunity is a precious gem held by 
the people of the United States. It is no empty boast. Our politi- 
cal system well expresses the common opposition to special privi- 
leges and the common demand that every one shall have his equal 
chance. This opposition and this demand are much more pro- 
nounced than in the first half century, or the second half century, 
of the Republic. No political system that is real will ever be ideal. 
Ours is real, and of course its applications sometimes fail. But it 
opens the door of opportunity to every one more nearly than any 
political system in Europe can possibly do. For example, there is 
not an educational system in Europe, not excepting by any means 
that of our Mother Country, which is not a machine set to lift up 
the children of the upper classes and keep down those of the lower 
classes. And the machine is so supported by the common thinking 
and by long usage that a plebeian seldom breaks through the bar- 
rier it sets up, seldom goes to the advanced schools, and seldom 
reaches a high place in commercial, professional, or public life. 
That is not so in this country. The public educational system of 
America has been arranged by the poor to help the poor to the 
very best there is in learning, arid it has been so well arranged 
and is so strongly supported that it does more for the poor than 
the more exclusive schools do for the children of the rich. And 
the educational system is only one expression of the political 
philosophy of the country. For whatever end that philosophy ex- 
presses itself, it does so freely. People will associate and organize 
upon whatever lines they like, but the public policy of the country 
will never be exclusive. The common people hold the political 
power and they intend to use it. They fix the tax rate and they 
make the appropriations. They are going to have the best possi- 
bilities of a self-governing state. There is more danger to the 
rich than to the poor, but the fundamental laws protect them and 
they are better able to invoke those laws. In any event, this is the 
landwhere the constitutions, and the laws, and public opinion, and 




8i 



common usage, intend to hold out equality of rights and of oppor- 
tunity to all. That is a gem of our own finding : let us venerate it. 

Religious freedom is a jewel of the finest form and fiber in the 
government of the United States. The complete independence of 
church and state is not usual in other lands. It is decreed by law 
in a few, but in hardly any is it established in fact as here. That 
fact has a weighty influence upon the hearts of the people. No 
one gains prerogative and no one suffers in his rights or his estate 
because he is an Episcopalian, or a Lutheran, or a Roman Catholic, 
or a Quaker. The state can not use a church to bolster up its 
power, and no church need deaden its spirituality by obeisance to a 
monarch or by maneuvering politics to gain prestige and appro- 
priations. It makes for religious freedom ; it creates interdenomi- 
national respect and fraternity; and it absolutely interdicts the re- 
ligious warfare which has shed more human blood than any other 
warfare in history. That too is a gem of our own finding, and it 
is to the good and the honor of the nation that cherishes it so 
warmly. 

There is another jewel in the box that is exclusively our own. 
That is the right to mind our own business, and to expect that 
other people will mind theirs. It is more of a boon than the un- 
thinking will appreciate. It has come through our isolated situa- 
tion, geographically, religiously, and politically. We are remote 
from other countries which we have any occasion to fear. Our 
border controversies with Great Britain on the north are easily 
settled by negotiation or arbitration; and any that we may have 
upon the south are likely to tax our sense of justice more than 
our power to do what we will. Great oceans separate us from 
other continents. Happily, the United States wants nothing but 
comity and good-will with all other peoples. We are not seeking 
empire; we are not going to force our system on others; we want 
to carry our fair share of the white man's burden in the world ; 
we are willing all the others shall carry all they will. Our 
diplomacy has always been direct. We want peace. Nobody 
thinks we are insipid; nobody doubts that we can fight. But 
we have never had occasion and we have never assumed to be 
prepared for war. The constitutions, the laws, the balanced 
sentiment of the country, contemplate that we shall preserve 
order and be prepared to out down insurrection; but there is 
no suggestion more un-American than that about preparedness 
for war with foreign countries. It comes from men who are 



82 

interested unworthily, or from others who are so fanciful and 
flighty that they are not to be listened to. The effort to expand 
the army or navy beyond the needs of police duty in the country 
and along our coasts involves a distinct departure from the 
traditional purpose of the people and the clear intent of the 
laws of the United States. Any attempt to create an American 
military or naval armament, always ready for war with the 
military powers of Europe, would be distinctly discreditable 
to us. The fact that we have not had to do it is the fact which 
has enabled us to go forward on the road of happiness and pros- 
perity at a bound. We may easily do justice to and live at peace 
with all the world; and we should resent any attempt of the 
unthinking or the self-interested to involve us in brutalities 
which cost many lives and more money than will support all the 
churches and schools of a peaceful people for all time. 

There are other jewels in the nation's strong-box, but there 
is no time to examine them now. We have not exhibited our 
riches; we have not boasted of our accomplishments; we have 
not fought over again the battles won, and conveniently failed 
to recall those that were lost. This is almost enough to expel 
human interest from the Fourth of July, but it may come nearer 
the " safe and sane " observance of the anniversary which so 
many desire. We have not even indulged in prophecy; we have 
not foretold what the nation will do and what it will become in 
an hundred years; and you must know that abstinence of that 
kind is a cruel limitation upon the traditional privileges of a 
Fourth of July speaker. 

We have merely been looking over the nation's heirlooms 
and recalling the associations that make them sacred. We may 
well look over the nation's properties as well as its heirlooms. 
We may have been thinking of the difficulties which such a hetero- 
geneous people, of an hundred millions, must have in caring for 
such an estate upon the basis of free government. Fifty years 
after Bunker Hill, Webster declared democratic government to be 
" the master work of the world." But that was eighty-six years 
ago, and he could not contemplate the situation that is upon us now. 
Nor can we estimate the difficulties when the nation shall have 
five hundred or a thousand millions of people, as it is more than 
likely to have. It is a question of capacity. Some people have to be 
much controlled. There are whole peoples to whom it would be 
absurd to entrust the powers of government. The old stock in 



83 

America could govern ; the new accessions have brought priceless 
contributions to our American civilization and, after a little, most of 
them have shown the qualities which make government secure. We 
expect this will continue. But it would be simplicity itself to regard 
with indifference the capacity of the multiplying millions for that 
self-government which will afford abundant security and provide 
steadily enlarging advantages to every one in the land, for all time. 
Nothing less than equal justice and equivalent opportunity for 
all ; nothing less than universal and, if necessary, compulsory edu- 
cation ; nothing less than the gospel of universal work ; nothing 
less than a firmness that hates insipidity and commands respect; 
nothing less than the fair-dealing and good-will which are the 
essence of our Christianity; nothing less than steadiness, and 
patience, and toleration, and good-cheer, and confidence, can give 
us assurance of enduring success. Happily, we have gathered 
many of these qualities from the four corners of the earth and 
out of the long history of the human race, and, more happily still, 
they seem to grow and multiply in the air that is " full of sunshine " 
and under the flag that is " full of stars." 



CRITICISMS OF EDUCATION CHAPTER IN 
PROPOSED NEW YORK CITY CHARTER 



CRITICISMS OF EDUCATION CHAPTER IN PROPOSED 
NEW YORK CITY CHARTER 

Albany, August 2, ipn 
Hon. James A. Foley 

Chairman Assembly Cities Committee 
316 East Eighteenth Street 
New York City 
My dear sir: 

Your committee has prepared a new charter for New York City 
which the Legislature is expected to act upon in September next. 
As the Constitution requires a State system of schools, the chief 
educational officer of the State is bound to be concerned about a 
chapter which arranges an untried plan of government for the 
schools of half the children of the State. 

Your committee has felt the unrest that always exists in the 
school system in New York City as in every great system ; you have 
doubtless tried to meet a difficult situation in the best way you 
could; and it may be said that the literary and legal side of your 
work seems well done. But in my judgment the new kind of school 
government which you propose to set up is vitally defective, would 
work great mischief, and could not long endure. I beg to say in 
what respects this is so, before the inevitable haste attendant upon 
an unusual and probably brief legislative session in the fall. 

Your educational chapter abolishes the Board of Education as a 
separate corporate entity and sinks the government of the schools 
in the government of the city. The character if not the very life 
of the schools depends upon freedom from all partisanship, and 
most assuredly upon freedom from municipal politics. The com- 
mon schools provide the common meeting ground, where all par- 
tisans stand equal, and where nothing repugnant to any may ob- 
trude itself. In the very nature of things, that is impossible under 
any political government or under any existing municipal adminis- 
tration. An educational system can not thrive unless wholly actu- 
ated by educational principles and free from all that interferes 
with their operation. This fundamental basis of the school system 
has long been accepted by public opinion and incorporated in our 
system of laws. The courts, lower and higher, in this and in many 
other states, have often declared that the common school system 



has an entity of its own, and that the laws of the country intend 
it shall have independence. 

It is true that in this State we have the unfortunate habit of 
legislating in the city charters about the schools that are in our 
cities. It misleads some. It would be better if all educational legis- 
lation were classified in the Education Law. But even where the 
charters have assumed to merge the government of the schools in 
the government of the cities, and have named the officers of the 
schools among the officers of the cities, the courts have said, and the 
Legislature itself has said, that that was inadvertent; that the offi- 
cers of the schools could not thereby become officers of the cities, 
and that nothing could destroy the right of the schools to be free 
and independent. In solemn confirmance of this principle the people 
incorporated the " Children's Bill of Rights " in the State Constitu- 
tion in 1894, and made it fundamental that the Legislature shall 
provide, not thirty municipal school systems, but one State " system 
of common schools wherein all the children of the State may be 
educated." It is true that your educational chapter, in a minor 
way, recognizes this State system and the fact that the New York 
City schools are a part of it. It looks as though the purpose was 
to go to the very limit of power in submerging the schools in the 
business of the city, without going so far as to force the courts to 
declare the whole work void. It is possible that legal learning and 
astuteness have avoided a fatal constitutional objection; but it is 
doubtful. It may be that the courts could hold that the Legislature 
had legal competency to make as much use of a municipal govern- 
ment for the ends of the State system of education as the commit- 
tee provides for in the new charter. But why involve the schools 
of the first city of the country in the probability of demoralizing 
litigation, and, above all, why depart as far as may be from prin- 
ciples that are obviously for the good of the schools and very 
universally accepted? 

But whatever its relations, the government of the schools must 
be a popular government, and an educational government, and a 
government that governs. It may easily be all that. The universal 
practice has been to intrust the management of the schools to an 
unsalaried board of prominent and intelligent citizens, who were 
interested in popular education but who were not professional edu- 
cators ; confer upon this board legislative powers, within legal limi- 
tations, over the school system ; and authorize it to appoint suitable 
executive officers both on the business and the instructional side of 



8 9 

the affairs of the schools. The universal theory and the best prac- 
tice in good school government requires that all the members of 
this board shall represent the educational interests of the entire city 
and not of subdivisions thereof ; that the members of the board shall 
not act as individuals and shall not possess administrative or 
quasi-administrative functions, but shall be limited to action taken in 
legal meetings of the board and recorded in its journal. Boards legis- 
late; individuals execute. No complex government, as that of the 
New York City school system must be, has ever been successful 
where these legislative and executive functions have overlapped. 
The larger the system, the more imperative is this principle. Con- 
fusion of mind about this has produced paralyzing controversy and 
demoralization in all large systems of schools. The common de- 
mand of universal experience is not only that legislative and execu- 
tive functions shall be separated, but quite as much that the man- 
agement of the business affairs and of the instructional work shall 
be as sharply separated, and committed to responsible and specially 
qualified executors. The scheme of government must be such that 
if there is misconduct about the business of the system, some one 
man may be held responsible for it; such that a parent who finds 
that his child is in the hands of a cranky or a woodeny teacher may 
go right to the man or woman who has authority to correct the 
difficulty. The scheme must be clean cut, so arranged that officials 
can not overreach one another ; so arranged that each may have the 
credit of good work and must have the odium of bad work ; so 
arranged that the schools must steadily grow in character and effi- 
ciency, or intelligent citizens be able to know where the trouble is. 

These are some of the foundation principles of a good govern- 
ment for schools. Indeed they are the vital ones : if they are 
observed in good faith, the rest will take care of itself. They are 
upheld by every man and woman of experience and reputation in 
the country. Yet, by a singular succession of coincidences, the 
educational chapter in your charter defies every one of them. Let 
me specify, but with necessary brevity : 

You provide that the Board of Education shall have no separate 
corporate powers; that all of its work shall be absolutely sunk in 
the business of the city. This not only deprives education of its 
vital freedom, but it puts the schools in the same class as the police 
and fire and park and street-cleaning departments. Those depart- 
ments are operated on business principles and essentially managed 
through discipline. Education is a professional matter, and schools 



90 

can be made efficient only by observing pedagogical principles and 
by adapting teachers who are professionally trained to duties for 
which they are particularly fitted. No school system has ever been 
highly or even measurably satisfactory in which this policy was 
not cherished. 

You provide a board of seven persons, with salaries of $9000 for 
each of six members and $10,000 for the chairman, to manage the 
schools in subordination to the political government of the city. 
This is an arrangement wholly new to American education and to 
education in all countries. It is not only new; there is nothing to 
commend it. When a board of education meets only occasionally 
to legislate upon and appoint the higher officers of the school sys- 
tem, there is no difficulty in getting better members without than 
with salaries. Good citizens in plenty are glad to render this serv- 
ice if it is a matter of honor and not a purchased and paid service. 
And none can doubt that such salaries will attract men without 
special fitness and who are looking for the compensation, and that 
in the long run, if not at once, such salaries would be made the re- 
ward of party service rather than of educational service. That is 
necessarily destructive of education and of schools. 

But the intent as to the character and functions of this board is 
not made clear by the bill. Is it to be a board of lay citizens, or of 
educational experts, or of both? If it is made up wholly of educa- 
tionists it will bring untold harm to the schools. Popular control 
over the common schools is as necessary as pedagogical expertness 
in the schools. The schools are the people's schools and the people 
would show great unwisdom in handing them wholly over to pro- 
fessional teachers. If the board is to be constituted wholly of lay- 
men, it is neither necessary nor desirable that the members be 
expected to give their entire time and become salaried office-holders. 
If it is to be composed of both lay and professional members, dis- 
agreements and dissension are inevitable, because it would be too 
much to expect that the professional members would be of the 
unambitious kind or of those who love teaching above all else, and 
power and pedantry might be in uncomfortable proximity. 

It is arranged that all members of the board shall represent par- 
ticular boroughs. This will make members supreme as to their 
own boroughs ; it will lead to log-rolling to accomplish results in 
certain boroughs ; and it will deprive all the boroughs of the free 
judgment and disinterested efforts of all the members. 

It is provided that the Board of Education may fix the salaries 



9i 

of all officers, employees, and teachers, subject to the approval of 
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the Board of Alder- 
men. No one of the least experience needs to be told that this 
necessarily undermines educational administration on the merit 
basis. In practical operation it subjects the members of the polit- 
ical boards of the city to importunity by teachers and their friends 
for the increase of particular salaries, and it gives the members of 
those boards dictatorial powers over individual salaries, and thus 
over the higher educational officers. It defies the superintendent 
and his assistants, and gives brazen effrontery the opportunity to 
override merit in a way which every teacher who is too honest and 
capable to depend upon influence should resent. This arrangement, 
taken in connection with a salaried board of education, would put 
the school system so deep in municipal politics that it could never 
be redeemed except by revolution. 

It is plain enough that the new charter intends to reduce the office 
of city superintendent to a subordinate and inferior place. The bill 
provides that he may enforce the compulsory attendance law, and 
assign his clerks to duty, and make reports to the board, and that is 
about all; it does not empower him to do anything which may legit- 
imately claim the attention of real leadership, or exercise any of the 
independence which the people should be glad to give to any man 
whom they would be willing to have occupy the office. A system 
of schools requires a responsible educational leader, and no capable 
and self-respecting man can hold the position without the rights, 
powers, and opportunities of real leadership. In educational admin- 
istration some one must lead. A dozen educational leaders with 
equal and coordinate powers will not agree and will deprive the 
instructional work of all coherency, efficiency, and progress. 

There are several provisions in the proposed charter which limit 
appointments upon the supervisory and instructional forces to per- 
sons already connected with the New York City schools. For 
example, no one can be appointed city superintendent, associate 
superintendent, or district superintendent who has not been con- 
nected with the New York City schools for seven years. In this 
way, the rights now enjoyed by the holders of college graduate 
certificates, normal school diplomas, and other high grade certifi- 
cates, issued by the State Education Department and protected by 
the laws of the State, are annulled. This is, of course, in the inter- 
ests of individuals and not of the schools. There is no reason 
why the New York City schools should not get the most competent 



92 

superintendents and teachers which the rather liberal compensation 
will command. Those who are already in the system have advan- 
tage enough. There is no danger of their being passed by if they 
are deserving. It is well for them to know that they are, in some 
small measure, in competition with all teachers in the State; it is 
well to introduce a little fresh blood from outside. It is not only 
well, but upon principle it is necessary. All true educationists 
know very well that neither they nor the schools prosper through 
educational narrowness and exclusiveness. If the Legislature is 
obliged to depart from this wholesome principle in the interests of 
people already in the service, by just so much will intelligent confi- 
dence in democratic government be broken down. 

It is not at all certain that New York City is not too large a 
unit for a single instructional administration to manage in a way 
which will assure reasonable justice to each teacher, and make it 
possible for parents to know that their children are getting the kind 
of teaching that they have the right to demand. The population 
is so large and the activities so complex that it may be impossible 
to maintain the necessary efficiency and also the universal spirit of 
kindliness and helpfulness without which schools can hardly be 
worth their cost. If experience seems to show that this is so, then 
there may be made just as many units or districts for the purposes 
of instructional supervision as may be thought advisable. That 
might easily be done, while the financial management of the whole 
should be kept within the control of a single authority. But, what- 
ever the size of the administrative units, each must have an indi- 
viduality of its own, with educational government in which author- 
ity and responsibility are strongly centralized and beyond the need 
of bending the knee to any power or influence that is unworthy. 

There are many very vital omissions from this plan of govern- 
ment for the schools of eighteen thousand teachers and three- 
quarters of a million children. Practically all of it relates to the 
personal rights and financial interests of individuals : there is 
little looking to the refinement and uplift of the system. There 
is nothing to keep the overambitious from overreaching ; nothing to 
punish the subtle and brutal use of power ; nothing to give reward to 
professional zeal and altruistic endeavor. No doubt this is because 
of the nature of the influences that come most quickly to the Legis- 
lature when the possibility of a new charter arises. No doubt it 
will be said that the spirit and character of the system can not be 
created in the law. But a legislative committee may well hear others 



93 

than those who are thinking of their own rights and interests, and a 
law which governs a great system of schools must of necessity 
define powers and set up safeguards which will give opportunity 
and protection to the great central motive of our system of public 
education. All reference to this seems strangely absent from the 
fanciful new school law that is under consideration. 

More can not be said in this letter. Enough has been said to 
demonstrate that the proposed charter, so far as education is con- 
cerned, is no better than the present one. I have no doubt that if 
it were to go into operation it would prove much worse. Surely, 
radical changes in the school system which concern all the people 
of the first city of the land, which is soon to be the first city of the 
world, ought not to be made by the Legislature unless it is clear 
that they are for the better. 

I am far from thinking that changes could not be made which 
would be for the better. But they can be made only with full 
information and in the light of the experiences of New York City 
and the other great cities of the country and the world. They do 
not have to be made in haste, at a brief session of the Legislature. 
There is another fact that none should forget: if a political party 
will regard the fundamentals of education, and will make changes 
in the government of the schools solely to promote their efficiency 
and enlarge their good to the people, that party may be entirely con- 
fident that the millions who are interested in the people's schools 
will appreciate its course. But that can not be done without listen- 
ing to those who are disinterestedly concerned about the progress 
of all the children and particularly to those whose business it has 
been to study the government of the schools. 

The Board of Estimate and Apportionment is at this time causing 
a careful inquiry into the affairs of the New York City schools to 
be made by one of the prominent educationists of the country. 
Why not wait until his impartial and critical report as to the facts, 
and his recommendations, shall be made, and then call the willing 
help of leading citizens and of professional and experienced experts 
to the aid of the Legislature in the preparation of legislation which 
the sensitive and substantial sentiment of the people will applaud? 



REMARKS AT THE INAUGURATION OF CHAN- 
CELLOR ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN 



REMARKS AT THE INAUGURATION OF CHANCELLOR 
ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN » 

The State of New York was represented by Dr Andrew S. 
Draper, Commissioner of Education, who said: 

Mr Chancellor, there are so many people in the State of New 
York that it is impossible to collect and compound their sentiment 
upon any subject not already well settled in American public policy 
unless it is a matter of practically universal and paramount con- 
cern. But the support of all schools, high and low, is among the 
settled policies, indeed is a confirmed passion in America, and I 
am sure all the people will be glad to have their interest in these 
uncommon exercises expressed to this university, and their good 
wishes presented, with warmth of feeling, to its new chancellor. 

States are very dependent upon universities, even though all the 
people do not always appreciate them. It is quite possible that 
states and universities may wholly misunderstand one another. 
Scholarship is frequently dazed by politics, and politics is some- 
times brutally indifferent to scholarship. On ordinary days it is 
very hard for them to mix, for scholars have very little patience 
with the practical difficulties of the State, and the State is not likely 
to become excited over such questions as whether classical history 
or scientific research is entitled to the most money ; or whether 
training boys and girls in vocational industries is likely to deprive 
the professions of medicine and law of the necessary novitiates and 
prove a menace to the very life of universities. So, the State is 
glad to come into this university on a day when it will not en- 
counter the danger of running into phantom fights over academic 
questions which it might not understand. 

This is a university with a noble history ; it is doing efficient 
work; and it is looking out upon enticing prospects. It is in a 
great city where there is no end of people to be trained for every 
kind of leadership, and no end of every manner of work for uni- 
versities to do. The State asks it to uphold scholarship and do 
what it can to apply scholarship to life, and knowing that such is 
its aim, the State wishes this university well. 
It is my great pleasure particularly to felicitate New York Uni- 



1 New York University, November 9. 1911. 

97 



9 8 

versity upon the accession of the new chancellor. He has attributes 
which appeal very strongly to the people of the State. He was 
born upon a New. York farm. Whether or not it is better to be 
born upon a farm than in a cit)^ there are many men and women 
in the cities who give evidence that it is. Of course there are a few 
here who have missed altogether the distinction of being born in 
the State of New York. If no one will cali the matter up against 
them, neither will any one deny that New York is a very good State 
for a New York University president to be born in. Chancellor 
Brown was not only born in a good state but at a good time. He 
was born just at the time to get the name of a gallant young colonel 
of a New York State and New York City regiment, who was the 
first of a long line of hallowed sacrifices to give his precious life in 
the war to save the Union. 

Chancellor Brown in some way missed being educated in the 
New York schools, but he has been pretty well recompensed for it 
by life in a vigorous pioneer environment and by training in one 
of the very best state normal schools in the country, at Blooming- 
ton, Illinois, and at the State University of Michigan, a university 
which was the great leader of the state university movement in 
America, the most marvelous development of democratic institu- 
tions of real university grade that has appeared in the long history 
of world education. Spending a year in Germany, he began teach- 
ing at the University of Michigan, and soon earned a professor- 
ship which was continued at the University of California. This led 
him to know how states and universities may work together for 
the profit of each, a little better than we in New York all realize. 
That knowledge produced the best history of the American middle 
schools that has been written. Those are the schools of American 
creation which are at once the expression of our democracy and 
the connecting link in American education; which go further 
than any class of schools in other national systems of education 
to give all children their even chance. That book and the work 
that was behind it raised him to a place in the teachers' guild which 
is honored by all the pedagogues and many of the people of the 
United States. In turn that lifted him to the office of United 
States Commissioner of Education, and it may be suspected that 
the call to your Chancellorship came in happy juxtaposition with 
his discovery of the tribulations, and perhaps the emptyhanded- 
ness, of an excellent teacher and a virile pedagogical author in a 
public office. However that may be, it was high time to come 



99 

home. It is splendid to go out west and gather up the thinking 
and the doings of pioneer people, and work with universities that 
express their highest aspirations, but it is well for the young men 
who do that to come home when they reach the place Doctor 
Brown had gained, and most certainly so if there are great uni- 
versities in the home state that ask them to come and lead them. 

To be sure, not many of us have been accustomed to associate 
Chancellor Brown with a university presidency. He has seemed to 
fill the concept of a professor to the full, but we have never recog- 
nized the readiness to give pain or the strength to endure it which 
President Seth Low, when at the head of Columbia, used to say 
were the necessary attributes of a university president. We have 
never thought of the qualities in him which can deal with faculties 
as well as with students, and can speak to the public in such de- 
cisive and authoritative ways, as we are accustomed to see setting 
so lightly on the shoulders of the successful university presidents. 
But we have no apprehensions. A good jurist may never be a 
great lawyer, but a great lawyer can cultivate the temperament and 
the habits of a first-rate jurist. Not all the university presidents 
have the attributes of great teachers, but a real university will 
sustain a great teacher in the chancellor's or the president's office; 
and it will be surprising if this one does not develop the attributes 
of his peers. 

The State that chartered this university congratulates her upon 
calling such a son of the State back to his just inheritance and to 
her ennobling service. All in all, the day is a radiant one in the 
history of this university, and the State of New York expresses 
to New York University and to its new chancellor the felicitations 
and the good wishes of the millions of people and of that mighty 
complexity of moral, intellectual, industrial, and commercial activi- 
ties which enter into the Constitution and are concerned about the 
healthy life and the genuine progress of the Empire State. 

4 



WHAT IS EXPECTED OF DISTRICT SUPER- 
INTENDENTS 



WHAT IS EXPECTED OF DISTRICT SUPERINTEND- 
ENTS 1 

I would not disguise the fact that I have more real satis- 
faction in this meeting of newly chosen district superintendents, 
all with their new and higher standing, powers, and functions 
established in the Education Law, than in any educational 
gathering I have attended in many years. This is the first con- 
crete result of a campaign for uplifting the country schools that 
was stoutly, and often subtly, resisted, and that was more than 
once menaced with humiliating failure. It was a longer and 
more serious struggle than it should have been. The public under- 
standing of the matter was much confused, and it required as 
much explanation and argument to accomplish the absolutely 
obvious thing in New York school administration as ought to be 
necessary to carry a presidential election or an amendment to the 
Federal Constitution. There are many here today who became 
real veterans in that long campaign, and they may be assured that 
I am glad to see them here. . It is not strange if we have something 
of the feeling of old soldiers who carry forlorn hopes to glory. 
With sincere appreciation of the constancy and the efficiency of 
so many in this good cause, it is a little difficult to speak of one, 
but it really ought to be said that a lion's share of commendation 
ought to go to Dr Thomas E. Finegan, Third Assistant Commis- 
sioner of Education, for the unanswerable and always good- 
natured ways in which he has shaped up the arguments, the keen- 
ness with which he has scented ambuscades, and the absolutely 
unrelenting earnestness with which he has braced up the troops 
on every part of the field. It is fortunate that he is to have much 
to do with administering the system. Many of you know much 
of country schools, but there is not one of you that knows more of 
them than he does. He will speak to you in a little time. I have 
something of the feeling that I might well leave it to him to do 
all the speaking, but I confess that I wanted a part in ths exulta- 
tion and I would have no doubt in any mind as to the measure of 



1 Address given before the rural education section of the New York State 
Teachers Association at the State Normal College, Albany, November 28, 
1911. 

103 



104 

my concern and of my expectations about this epoch-making move- 
ment in New York education. 

You have been appointed superintendents of the rural schools. 
There are two hundred and seven of you, almost twice as many 
superintendents as there were school commissioners. The old 
districts were generally so large that real supervision was impossi- 
ble, even if the old law had contemplated it, which it did not. 
Putting two districts where there was one before is an important 
factor in increasing the efficiency of supervision. That gives 
the superintendent a much better chance to do something worth 
while, but whether he does it or not depends upon himself. The 
Education Department expects much of each, and will do all it can 
to help each to do conspicuously good work; it will censure a 
superintendent for indifference and will remove him for wilfully 
or ignorantly violating either the letter or the spirit of the new 
law. This is plain language, but plain language is best. It would 
be absurd to characterize it as a menace or a threat. It is in the in- 
terest of two hundred and seven officials whom the law places under 
my supervision, every one of whom starts out with my confidence 
and carries with him my good wishes. It is for the sake of a per- 
fect understanding. I have my responsibility as well as you yours. 
What I say is in the discharge of that responsibility. 

It is well to be much more explicit and to tell you in detail what 
the Education Department expects of you. 

In the first place it expects that you will be free and independent 
school superintendents. It can not be said too often that the com- 
mon schools are to be kept free from all political or denominational 
partisanship. Officers of the schools are to assert this and exemplify 
it. They are to bar out everything to which any patron of the 
schools can justly object. Above all, they are not to descend to any 
course of partisan conduct to which fifty, or twenty, or one per 
cent of the people may be conscientiously opposed. They are to at- 
tend to the schools very exclusively. The plain English of this is 
that they are not to help run political machines ; they are not to do 
political work for leaders or committees. They are to hold their 
own opinions and vote as they please, but they are not to make 
themselves obnoxious to any by exerting any influence of their 
position as superintendent of schools to effect nominations or get 
votes for a ticket on election day. The school organization is to 
offend none ; it is to count upon the support of all. This is at once 
sound principle and good policy. You will be expected to regard it 
conscientiously. 



io5 

You will of course seek to enlarge your knowledge and im- 
prove your professional qualifications. It is one of the very strong 
points of the new law that it excludes the uneducated from these 
superintendencies. You have gained certificates of your ability to 
teach in the schools of the State without further examination. That 
means much, but if there is one among you who thinks it is enough 
he is doomed to failure. Read systematically for the enlargement 
of your knowledge. Of course keep up with the current news. But 
there is a vast difference between knowledge and news. Appreciate 
it and act accordingly. Efficient school superintendents must have 
knowledge, not merely the technical rules of arithmetic and gram- 
mar, but of the world's stores of literature. No one really has any 
hold upon that without the sincere desire to tighten his grasp. If 
you have that, your grasp upon administration, and courses of study, 
and methods of teaching, and all such, may come very quickly and 
easily to those of you who are active. But if you are long on frills 
and pretense, and short on the substance of knowledge; if you are 
without the elements of intellectual growth, your rising sun will be 
obscured by a cloud and is even liable to drop out of the heavens 
altogether. 

The law provides that a district superintendent " shall devote 
his whole time to the performance of the duties of his office and 
shall not engage in any other business or profession." That is good 
English, easily understood. It will not be construed so as to take 
its vitality out of it. You may not practise law, or medicine, or 
seek insurance, or till a farm, while holding this office. The law 
also says that when you are not engaged in the clerical and adminis- 
trative work of your office, you shall be visiting and inspecting the 
schools. You understand that : do not get confused about it. How 
truly you observe all this will soon be known to the Third Assistant 
Commissioner of Education, and he is bound to act upon what he 
knows. Be so square and true about it that he will have no ques- 
tion marks against your name. 

For your own sakes I bid you to read, and reread now and then, 
section 393 of the Education Law. It is not pleasing reading for 
a public assemblage, but it contains good propositions to commune 
with in secret. It bears upon the relations of superintendents to 
the sale of books, furniture, apparatus, and the like to the schools ; 
to contracts made by trustees ; and to gifts and rewards for exert- 
ing official influence in favor of the purchase of any school supplies 
or for recommending the employment of a teacher. There is no 



io6 

need of studying this section to see just how far one may go with- 
out violating the law. The principle is absolute that a school super- 
intendent can not lawfully accept any emolument beyond his salary 
for the exercise of his official influence or authority. He must 
understand that completely. 

If sections 393 atod 394 of the Education Law claim the secret 
contemplation of superintendents, there can be nothing secret about 
section 395. All of its fourteen subdivisions deserve to be printed 
large and posted in the schoolhouses. It declares, not what the 
superintendent is prohibited from doing, but what he is required to 
do. Where the law directs that certain definite things shall be done 
and creates the officers to do them, the people are justified in ex- 
pecting that there will be results. 

It is expected that the schoolhouses will be cleaned and reno- 
vated and made sanitary and comfortable. It is expected that out- 
buildings will be made decent and convenient, free from any im- 
moral stains and suitable for the free use of children. Do not 
evade this thing and of course do not bluster about it. Talk of it 
without hesitation. Expect that the teacher will help. See the 
trustee about it. If necessary, tell him what should be done and 
how to do it. Assume that he will be glad to do it. If he should 
refuse, then require him to do it. Do not require too often, but 
there will be many times when you will have to require, and when 
such times come be sure that you follow the matter to the very end. 

It is expected that out of all this there will be a fresh impulse 
toward new buildings in the places of such as are unsuitable for 
use and beyond repair. The law leaves less excuse for disreputable 
schoolhouses in New York than in any other state. Keep sane but 
be persistent about the matter. Talk with the people in their 
homes, induce district meetings to discuss it, and be on hand your- 
self to show pictures and plans of new houses that will stir the 
pride of the village or the neighborhood. The Education Depart- 
ment will provide the material to aid you. 

Next spring as the snow is disappearing, when the colts begin to 
kick up, and the cows begin to look for the first blades of green 
grass, and the hens begin to scratch on the sunny sides of the barns, 
and the boys must play leapfrog, it will be time for raking off the 
school grounds, straightening the walks, and setting out a tree and 
a shrub or two. 

There is a direction in this law that you hold meetings of 
trustees and advise with them and counsel them in relation to 



107 

the interests of the schools. That is a new and an important 
provision. Find the convenient time and place where you can get 
five or ten trustees together, and have dinner in company and talk 
over buildings and teachers and courses of study. Let them do all 
the talking they will ; but answer criticisms, explain needs and diffi- 
culties, and bind them together in the sincere determination to have 
the most attractive schoolhouses and the most vital teaching in 
your supervisory district. Make sure that the first meeting is so 
interesting that all will want to come to the next one. 

And here we are again around to the teacher and the things 
taught, but we have come to this part of the circle this time with 
a new and larger opportunity to do something worth while. I ad- 
monish you to be exacting yet just, firm yet kind, aggressive yet 
balanced and sane. Much more is expected of you than we have 
had from the school commissioners. Each of you has had much 
of the training and not a little of the experience of the teacher. 
You have lived in the atmosphere and you are moved by the spirit 
of the school system. Do by teachers as you would be done by and 
as the interests of children and the progress of the New York 
school system require. Help the young teachers and try to keep the 
older ones zestful and happy. But the teaching must be progressive 
and vitalizing, and the fact that it is must be evidenced by the 
children in their homes. 

You have been commissioned to lead the school work of several 
towns. Do not hesitate to take the lead. Show that you are the 
superintendent by superintending. Embrace every fair opportun- 
ity to quicken public sentiment through the newspapers and by 
speaking at all manner of gatherings. When you write and speak 
do it as well as you can. Try to gain a sense of educational per- 
spective, by which I mean try to have a sane appreciation of edu- 
cational values; remember that not half that is to be learned is in 
textbooks, and that children are justified in rebelling against teach- 
ing that has no life or juice in it. Fall in with the very common 
thought of the day and associate doing with thinking in teaching. 
Make certain that the children are trained soundly in English, and 
in simple mathematics, and in truthfulness, and in manners ; mix in 
rational sports, regard for health, knowledge of the earth, and love 
for animals. Adjure teachers to train children to respect labor and 
to do things, never losing sight of the fact that while nothing 
can excuse any American child from a mastery of the fundamentals 
of an English education, yet the boy who is long on training a 



io8 

horse, or sailing a boat, or raising corn, or making a wagon, and a 
little short on the literary side of things, is likely to be a larger 
and a more useful man than his mate who is quick and exact in the 
schoolroom but seems unable to get hold of something which he 
can do to earn a living and which the world must have done. But 
we are not forced to an election between these children with differ- 
ing traits and tendencies. Both of them, all of them, are to be 
trained in both culture and efficiency. Equalizing advantages some- 
what, making absolutely sure of the fundamentals, we are to give 
special gifts or propensities their opportunities. 

I advise you to encourage the schools to interest the pupils in the 
agricultural and mechanical and homemaking industries. It is to 
be done through the ingenuity and versatility of the teachers. 
School literature is full of this thing, and you may easily work it 
into the schools. It is fascinating to children. If I thought it 
would work harm to the reading and writing and numbers, I would 
oppose it. I know it will work to their advantage. If I thought it 
would keep pupils from going to high school and college, I would 
oppose it. I think it will send more to the higher schools. It will 
broaden the higher schools or at least it will concentrate their in- 
tensiveness upon the work that has the largest claims. The vital 
need of the educational work of this country is the training of 
pupils in manual and vocational efficiency. What helps the hands 
of pupils will help their heads. What is needed is greater respect 
for all manner of work, and special enthusiasm for some particular 
work. Too many never have any enthusiasm for anything. 
Never let go of what is in the books, but encourage the schools to 
do whatever will arouse the special interest of pupils in something. 

Why not public commendation for the neatest schoolhouse and 
the best kept grounds in your supervisory district, as the railroads 
give for the best kept section along the road? Why not a competi- 
tion between the schools in a town or in the district over the farm 
products raised, or the hand work done by boys and that done by 
girls ? Encourage the ingenuity of teachers in initiating movements 
which can do no harm and will arouse the interest and appeal to the 
pride of children and parents. 

The teachers institutes have been discontinued. They were good 
in their day, but their day is past. The teachers are at the very 
beginning more thoroughly trained than they used to be. They do 
not need so much lecturing and stimulating as they did before the 
uniform examinations were established and the literature and other 



109 

helps for teachers were so prolific. What they do need is frequent 
conference with the superintendent and among themselves. You 
are to arrange such conferences. They may be by neighborhoods, 
or towns, or two towns. They should of course be in a perfectly 
healthy environment where all may be glad to go. They should be 
for a territory which will enable all to come in the morning and 
return at night. A good nutritious dinner at reasonable expense 
should be arranged. Then there should be a live conference on 
the everyday interests of the schools. Something of the success 
of these conferences will depend upon the settings of the room you 
meet in. It would be better to sit around a table where each 
may look all the others in the face, than in a stiffly arranged school- 
room or church. You will have to have plenty of good, live ma- 
terials for these conferences. You will know where to get these 
materials. But give the teachers every opportunity to tell their 
troubles and ask their questions. Having done that, confer about 
the schoolhouse and grounds, and about the school library and the 
appliances and apparatus. Confer about the work in general and 
about the adaptations to particular localities or individuals. Confer 
about what the teachers are doing for self-improvement. Confer, 
I say; do not lecture. Do not do it in a stilted way but in an easy, 
familiar way, so that all may have an inclination to enter into the 
matter, and may go home at the end with the feeling that it was 
worth while to attend. Let the gathering be small enough for a 
conference, and insist that it shall be a conference. Avoid formal 
or heavy papers. You will not need stenographers. Keep agents 
out. They may have their place, but it is not there. Do not expect 
some one from the State Department; carry forward these confer- 
ences on your own account. Do not wind them up with a dance. 
Act freely and hold them often. In a word, establish relations 
with the teachers in your district similar to those which exist be- 
tween an efficient superintendent and the teachers in a city or vil- 
lage. Begin to assume that the everlasting country school problem 
is really solved. 

Of course you will look after the teachers training classes, and 
you will be well known at the normal schools. You should steadily 
seek to reinforce these institutions and connect your schools with 
them so that the schools will be reinforced by them. 

You are to advise the trustees as to the employment of teachers, 
the adoption of textbooks, and the purchase of library books and 
supplies. Do it freely if you really know what you are talking 



no 



about. If you are a little uncertain make a business of finding out 
so that you can talk confidently. Your success will depend very 
largely upon the new teachers employed, upon fitting teachers into 
the places to which they are best adapted, and upon the books and 
appliances which are provided for the schools. Out of all this the 
new spirit of the schools must grow. As this duty will be very com- 
mon and extremely important, you are likely to see much trouble in 
connection with it. You certainly will unless you have firm ground 
under your feet and act without fear or favor. Under no circum- 
stances do anything in this connection under influence, persuasion, 
or threat. Think matters all over for yourself and do just what 
you think is for the best. More trouble comes to public officers 
because of their commendable desire to please some friends, or 
through their unworthy desire to show their powers, than from any 
other cause. Bend to nothing of this kind. Stand up straight, lean- 
ing neither forward nor backward. Have reasons for what you do, 
whether you think it necessary to state them or not. Be able to look 
any man or woman in the eye. Let the consequences be what they 
may, bear your own responsibility in ways that satisfy your own 
minds and consciences, and let other people carry the responsibility 
that belongs to them. 

It would be well to announce a certain day in each week when 
you will be at home, so that all who may want to come to see you 
may count upon finding you. Apparently it should be a day when 
teachers are free from the schools. You are bound to know the 
roads in your district as well as the mail carrier does, and you ought 
to be as familiar with all the homes as is the tax collector. An offi- 
cial visit to a school is not made by a look at the schoolhouse. 
Work half a day with a school and make a visit accomplish some- 
thing worth while. Scrutinize all the parts of the building and out- 
buildings, and look to the furnishings and appliances. If there is a 
nuisance on the premises, require that it be abated at once as the 
law amply empowers you to do. If the building needs repairs or if 
the teacher is without conveniences for her work, go to see the 
trustee and arrange to have things made right. Make 
your visit very welcome to the teacher. Do not sneak and 
do not bluster. Do not let the thermometer drop forty degrees 
while you are there. More emphatically still, do not flatter. Just 
be kind and frank and capable. Know what in the way of spirit 
and efficiency ought to be there, and work to get it there. Bring in 
something that will brace up the school, make the teacher a little 



Ill 

more earnest, a little more courageous, and a little more sure- 
footed. If it is necessary to suggest things to her, as it generally 
will be, do it without hesitating but in ways that will gratify her if 
she has many of the attributes of a true teacher. Before you 
correct her it would be well to make sure that what you propose is 
consistent with the educational policies, theories, and methods which 
the training classes and normal schools have been instilling into 
her. Perhaps it would be better to see first whether she has the 
school in her hands, holds the interest and respect of pupils, and is 
giving them plenty to do. If she has, it might be well to let her 
keep on doing it in her own way, whether her way seems to meet 
the sacred canons of the higher pedagogical criticism or not. If she 
has not, then go in and try to improve matters, with the assurance 
that you will not make them worse, and with knowledge that it is 
your business, and with some confidence that it is within yoar power 
to make them better. Do not gossip around the district. Do not 
have profound secrets or many confidences. Do not make promises 
to be performed longer ahead than tomorrow or the next day. 
When you enter into an engagement, take out your notebook and 
put it down, and mark it off when you have done as you agreed. 
Do not cross bridges before you get to them, and when you do cross 
them march over like an old soldier, erect and right in the middle 
of the road. 

You will have to use your sense as to the exercise of your powers. 
The law always assumes that powers will be exercised by rational 
officers. That does not mean that an officer shall be left to himself 
to determine what the law is or what it means; nor does it mean 
that an officer may decide whether a law shall be executed or not. 
The purpose of the law must always be considered; mere expres- 
sions must never be taken by themselves and invoked to overthrow 
or thwart the manifest intent. Your duties and functions are gen- 
eral. You will have to do some things which are not specified in the 
Constitution and the written laws. The main purpose of the Educa- 
tion Law concerning you is that you shall be capable and assiduous 
in building up the schools and in quickening education in your 
districts. You are to do whatever you can do that will promote 
that end, unless it violates some law or invades some right. 

It is to be hoped that you will distinguish between the manage- 
ment of the business interests of the schools through the district 
meetings and the trustee system, and the supervision of the instruc- 
tion through superintendents. Beyond tendering friendly advice 



112 



you should not interfere with school meetings or the doings of the 
trustees, except in cases where the law expressly empowers you to 
give directions. As to the instructional work, you should not allow 
the meetings or the trustees to do more than give you friendly ad- 
vice. As to the teaching, you should know what needs to be done, 
and see that it is done. But by all means, officers chosen to pro- 
mote the same good ends should treat each other with every con- 
sideration and work together harmoniously and effectually. 

The new law provides for the payment of your official expenses 
by the State up to a limit of three hundred dollars a year. That is 
an important factor in the new plans for keeping you traveling 
about your districts. Your bills will have to be sworn to and they 
must be approved by the Commissioner of Education. None but 
moneys which you actually pay out will be approved. Now let 
there be no foolishness about this thing. Carry a memorandum 
book, and enter every item you pay out and at the time you do it. 
Every three months transfer that list to the blank forms provided 
and send it to the Department. Be exact to the cent. There is no 
need of bending over backward : if a farmer offers you a dinner, as 
farmers are prone to do, eat it unless there is danger of some aber- 
ration of mind which may dispose you to charge the State for it. 
It is hard for most of us to be away from home, and when your duty 
requires it you are entitled to make yourself comfortable if you 
can. But whatever else you do, keep your integrity and independ- 
ence ; they are the mainstays of success in school supervision. 

The salary paid you by the State is not large. But you have 
accepted the trust. The State is not likely to increase the amount 
very soon, because the State has been induced to assume an addi- 
ditional burden of more than $150,000 for this rural supervision, 
only after much persuasion. But there is no reason why the super- 
visory district should not add to the superintendent's salary. If he 
is worth more, there is every reason why that should be done. Such 
addition to the salary by the supervisory district is the only ex- 
pense which the district will have to incur for school supervision. 
The State pays a part of the salaries of superintendents in the cities 
and villages, but not the whole of them, as it now does in the farm- 
ing districts. The new law encourages the districts to add to your 
salaries. It can be done by the supervisors of the towns in the 
district. I do not advise that you agitate that subject. I would 
not fawn upon supervisors and disgust them if they are self-res- 
pecting men. You can not expect them to increase your salaries un- 



H3 

less the sentiment of the people supports it. I would try to do so 
much for the schools that the people would know about it and the 
common sentiment of the district would say that I ought to be a 
little better compensated. Men and women who think more about 
success than about wages are the ones who in the end get the most 
wages. 

You are the advance agents, the leaders and promoters, of an 
educational revival in the rural districts of New York. Your terri- 
tory reaches to the remotest corners of the State. It lies every- 
where beyond the boundaries of the cities and the villages of five 
thousand people. It runs through all the valleys and lies over all the 
hilltops of our imperial commonwealth. Your work has to do with 
all the homes. It has much to do with the potentiality of our lands, 
with the volume and value of our manufactures, with the happiness 
of the people, and with the greatness of the State itself. It must be 
a rational, not an emotional or spasmodic, revival. It must possess 
learning, it must steadily gather in knowledge and power, it must 
organize with expertness and fearlessness, it must apply pedagogi- 
cal methods that have been proved to be of worth, and it must exer- 
cise wisely and for a long time, the powers which the State has en- 
trusted to it, if it is to justify the recent legislation which has 
given it existence and created its opportunity. 

You are all-important factors in a great undertaking which is 
expected to mark the opening of a new era in New York education 
greater than any that has gone before it. In a year or two there 
must be very definite results in every county of the State. I have 
not dared merely to appeal to you to bear your part sanely and 
bravely. I have declared what is expected of you. There is noth- 
ing impossible, indeed nothing extremely difficult, about organizing 
an enduring educational movement which will further uplift the 
State and add to her prestige in all the states. I anticipate it with 
entire confidence. You may be assured that it will not be put in 
jeopardy by any failure of the supervision which the law directs 
the Education Department to give to the work you are to do. The 
Department is intensely in earnest, and expects to be exacting, 
even unrelenting. But that only means that its officers want to join 
earnestly, honestly and sanely with you, and want you to join in the 
same way with them, in a very serious and a very vital undertaking, 
the success of which will bring honor to all of us, and, what is 
vastly more important, will bring great advantage to the people 
whom we cherish and to the State which we are all anxious and 
proud to serve. 



NO MUMMIFIED HISTORY IN NEW YORK 

SCHOOLS 



NO MUMMIFIED HISTORY IN NEW YORK SCHOOLS 1 

The last Legislature did the inevitable thing and made the office 
of the State Historian a division in the Education Department. It 
went further and created a division in the Department to supervise 
the manner in which all public records of the State and of the coun- 
ties, cities, and towns thereof are made and cared for. Of course 
these plans articulate together and are expected to conserve, and 
cherish, and magnify our history. They are expected to make the 
vital history of the country, and particularly of the State, available 
to all the people in attractive and realistic forms. One of the early 
expressions of the movement ought to appear in quickening and im- 
proving the teaching of history in the schools. 

There is no state with a more resplendent history than New 
York. The story of the first settlements, of the progress of pioneer 
farming, of the dealings and conflicts with the Indians, of the up- 
building of our commerce and manufactures, of the development 
of our religious and political institutions, of the old roads which 
foreshadowed the newer and greater ones, of the habits and customs 
of early generations which have influenced the doings of the present 
generation, of the deadly battles fought and the political policies 
established by our fathers, which settled the character of the State 
and nation, is an inheritance which is not exceeded by that of any 
people in the world. All of this splendid story can not be under- 
stood by the children in the schools, for that requires long lives and 
mature minds, but we may have the satisfaction of knowing that if 
we teach little parts of it so that children become really interested, 
they will go on and learn about other parts without helps beyond 
such as they will find on their own account. The story truly told is 
so fascinating that it is irresistible. 

The point of this little paper is not so much to extend the 
courses in history as it is to make the teaching vital and the history 
attractive. 

There are now two quite distinct schools of history writers and 
teachers. One of these, which we may call the old school, assumes 
that one who has participated in great events and can write well, 



1 Address before the history section of the New York State Teachers 
Association, at Albany, November 28, 191 1. 

117 



n8 

can write the history of these events. It assumes that one who had 
no actual part in the events but is an educated man and an accom- 
plished writer, may qualify himself for writing the history of them 
by reading all that others have written about them, by searching out 
old documents bearing upon them which have escaped the earlier 
writers, and by going over the grounds where the events occurred, 
occupying the point of view and entering into the feelings of the 
actors, and working himself into a frame of mind which will ex- 
press the story as the original participants in the events might if 
they could speak. 

The other and newer school is the rather natural outgrowth of 
the universities. It occupies the critical attitude of the universities. 
It is more destructive than creative. It is more professional and 
pedantic than original and inspiring. Its work is done in the study 
rather than by searching fields and following streams. Its par- 
ticular satisfaction is in calling down some old hero because he 
told a story with a little too much enthusiasm. It assumes that 
having had a part in the events, and having actual sympathy with 
one side or the other in those events, disqualifies from writing 
about them. It even assumes that no one has any business to write 
history unless he has been trained by the professors of history in 
the universities to question everything and to have no actual feel- 
ing about any historical fact. It pretends to treat judicially matters 
which are wholly outside of and apart from judicial interpretation. 
It makes more of mummies than of life. 

Let us illustrate. A professor of history at Dartmouth College, 
if he were a, disciple of this school, might write what he would 
call a judicial history of the battle of Gettysburg. He would dis- 
regard the motives and ignore the enthusiasms of the contending 
armies. He would say that the partisanship which would lead a 
man to offer his life to his country would make him unable to 
appreciate the accepted canons of historical criticism or understand 
the underlying principles of historical documentation. He would 
deal only with generalities, that is, the written orders, the generals, 
the divisions and army corps, the grand movements, the figures and 
the result; and to make sure that no one would think him preju- 
diced, or any more interested in one side than the other, he would 
very likely leave it to the reader to come to his own conclusions 
about it all, just as a circuit judge leaves it to a jury to decide 
what the facts are when the evidence is circumstantial and con- 
flicting and he is not himself sure of what happened. He could 



ii 9 

tell us that the battle of Gettysburg was fought on Thursday, Fri- 
day, and Saturday, July ist, 2d, and 3d, in 1863; that the weather 
was probably hot; that there were 201,817 men engaged; that they 
marched 33)4 miles the day before the battle, and that 41,714 were 
killed; and that all this was the unnecessary consequence of some- 
thing that our fathers mistakenly let slip into the Constitution on 
a Saturday or a Sunday in October 1789. It would be as interest- 
ing to boys and girls and their fathers and mothers as a railway 
track or a tow of canal boats when they had seen hundreds of them. 
That might happen. I do not believe it would, for I do not 
believe Dartmouth would stand for it long. It is all speculation. 
Now let us see something that did happen. In 1854 a fine young 
fellow by the name of Frank Haskell graduated from Dartmouth 
College. He was born in Vermont, taught school to get the money 
to go to college, and was late in getting through, for he was twenty- 
six. But he quickly made up for his delayed college course. He 
was a classical scholar, intent upon work, ready for a frolic and 
not afraid of a fight. He played square with the world, formed 
opinions and had unusual gifts in narrating facts and expressing 
himself. He went to Madison, Wisconsin, studied law, gained ad- 
mission to the bar, and was soon in successful practice and a citi- 
zen' who was regarded and respected. At the opening of the Civil 
War he enlisted in the Sixth Wisconsin regiment and soon gained 
reputation as a sagacious and daring soldier. He was a mounted 
aide to General Gibbon at Gettysburg, and carried orders and in- 
formation to far points on the field. Such a young man in such a 
place made the most of his unparalleled opportunities for seeing 
and doing things. He messed with the generals and mixed with the 
men, and freely offered his life to his country by doing whatever 
he could find to do, without regard to peril, that would help her 
in her crucial hour. He was wounded enough to put most men out 
of commission for a month, and he had two horses shot under hirn, 
but he never let go of his job. He was among the first to see the 
advance of Pickett's division for the grand charge on the after- 
noon of the third day. He rode along the crest looking for the 
weakest place in the Union lines. The Confederates had looked 
for it also. He found the thinnest ranks where Webb's brigade 
was in a moment to meet the fiercest onset at the " bloody angle." 
He looked for Hancock and Gibbon, but they had both been 
wounded. He looked for anybody with authority to give the orders 
which would mend the break. Finding no one, he flew about and 



120 

gave the orders himself just as though all the straps and stars in the 
army were upon or behind him. He rushed a couple of fairly fresh 
regiments into the breach, and when the blow fell he was right 
there to help them meet it. They met it so well that they lost half 
their number, but what was left gathered in four thousand pris- 
oners. Meade and Hancock and Gibbon and the Congress said that 
he had done as much as, if not more than, any other one man for 
the triumph of the Union arms at Gettysburg. He was only a 
lieutenant. It made him a colonel at once. 

In the next thirty days he wrote a full account of the battle 
from first to last. He had no thought of writing for publication. 
He wrote what fills a book. Without any self-laudation he told 
his young brother at home what he saw and heard, how he felt 
and what he did, what the officers and men did and said. He dealt 
with men and things and events in particular. He described move- 
ments and incidents so that the reader thrills and shivers. He 
expressed his feelings with the ardor and freedom of youth. He 
gave credit with a generous hand and without regard to rank, and 
he handed out criticism in the same way. For example, he said 
that Hooker was a " scoundrel," which he was not ; that Sickles 
was only a " political general " seeking popularity when he moved 
the third corps to the other ridge, which was putting it too strong; 
and that the eleventh corps was a " pack of cowards," which was 
probably overstating the matter. But it all came hot " off the bat " 
of a gentleman, a scholar, and a soldier, who had been all over 
the field and knew and could tell what had happened and how it 
had happened. The excitement of the battle doubtless gave him 
some opinions which he would have modified in later years if he 
had lived, but all the same he wrote actual history. That makes 
his story of Gettysburg very real; and he consecrated it all by 
giving his life to his country when leading his new regiment at 
Cold Harbor the next summer. 

I am with Professor Mahaffy of Dublin when he says, " Unless 
we have living men reproduced with their passions and the logic 
of their feeling, we have no real human history." I am with 
Gibbon who believed that history must be rich in imagination and 
not wanting in eloquence. I am for Fronde with his inaccuracies, 
rather than with any other who avoids positive statements and 
reduces human interest in the subject to the vanishing point. I 
am with Parkman who went over the ground and mixed with 
people who knew or had heard. I am with Lord Macaulay when 



121 

in his history of England before the Restoration he says that he 
will cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the 
dignity of history if he can succeed in placing before the English 
of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors. 

No one is for ignoring or straining the truth of history. Honest 
and intelligent imagination that adheres to essential facts but takes 
the loves and hates of actual men and women into account, comes 
nearer the truth than does the pessimist who rejects everything 
but positive evidence, necessarily misinterprets much of that, and 
insists that partisans are hardly capable of giving evidence at all. 

One who helped make history, if he has the other accomplish- 
ments, can write it better than those who had no part in making 
it; and no one can hope to write history well unless he can put 
himself in spirit and sympathy with those who made it. He must 
have their point of view, their enthusiasm, and their grief or ex- 
ultation over results, before he can make it very effective in the 
lives of human beings. Even those who are not in sympathy with 
the writer prefer the writings of one who has feeling in his theme, 
rather than of one who takes pride in his remoteness and indiffer- 
ence. The Confederate veterans would rather read the story by 
Colonel Haskell of what happened on the Union side at Gettys- 
burg; and the Union veterans that by General Pickett of what 
happened on the Confederate side, than any story by a historical 
philosopher who was not there and who tries to write judicially, 
when the whole thing was one of arms and had gone beyond the 
possibilities of judicial determination. 

The thing we are speaking of is not an exclusive trade at all ; 
it is to be saved from being professionalized ; it is far more a 
matter of knowledge, of intelligent interest and literary accomplish- 
ment, than of balancing evidence or of expert training. History 
consists of facts infused with life rather than of mere opinions. 
Of course there is such a thing as a philosophy of history, a treat- 
ment of causes and effects, a connecting of results and an explain- 
ing of consequences, but that is wholly beyond the children in the 
elementary or secondary schools ; and, aside from that, it is in the 
province of historical or philosophical speculation, and not in the 
field of historical fact at all. 

The same considerations govern the teaching as the writing of 
history. To be effectively taught it will have to be done by parti- 
sans, whose hearts quicken with the teaching and are quickened by 
it as it progresses. The thing taught will have to be within a 



122 

compass which pupils can grasp, and it will have to be made so 
clear, so full of human action and interest, will have to move in 
such an orderly and convincing way, that normal children must be 
enlightened, entertained, and convinced by it. 

We have 2,000,000 children in our New York schools. Large 
numbers of them are the children of parents who are new in the 
State and know little of the facts and the spirit of our history. 
We had 1,800,000 souls added to the population of New York 
State, and 1,300,000 added to the population of New York City, 
between 1900 and 1910. In other words, the decade's increase 
alone would make great cities and states as the world goes. And 
there are vast numbers of children descended from early settlers 
in the State who know little of the facts and feel little of the 
inspiration of our history. It is very vital to the State that they 
shall know these facts and feel this inspiration. No civilization 
lives unto itself alone. It is a matter of intelligence, of feeling, 
and of relations and outlook. A civilization treasures what its 
fathers did for it, and it is urgent about what it aspires to do for 
its children and their children. Indeed, loyalty to and intelligence 
about this line of teaching in the homes and in the schools goes 
further than anything else to determine the power and the right 
of a civilization to endure. 

The schools of all peoples are expected to attend to the matter. 
Frankly, I do not think we attend to it as well as we ought. We are 
as prodigal of our history as of our lands, and woods, and waters, 
and children. We need to conserve and care more for all of them. 
The people need to help the schools to do it better. Recall the 
books, and statutes, and columns, and arches, and art galleries, 
and great buildings dedicated to statesmen, and soldiers, and 
scholars, and artists in Rome and Madrid and Zurich and Berlin 
and Amsterdam and Paris and Edinburgh and London, and every 
other city of the Old World. St Petersburg is so full of them 
that it is mere display without the discrimination in selecting sub- 
jects or that balance between show and understanding which is the 
vital basis of any patriotism or any civilization that is of much 
worth. Stockholm, one of the fine cities of the world, goes all 
lengths in making the display without subjecting herself to any 
criticism for ignorance or grossness. Her well-made streets and 
her clean squares express her appreciation of the intellectual and 
martial history of Sweden. Opposite the palace of the democratic 
king an art gallery of great merit expresses the history of the nation 



123 

to a people free from the burden of illiteracy. The arts and indus- 
tries and the intellectual and constitutional evolution of Sweden are 
all admirably represented. Under the great dome there is the mag- 
nificent painting of the military guard bearing home on their should- 
ers through the deep snows, the body of King Charles XII, killed in 
battle with the Norwegians after Peter the Great had been brought 
to his reckoning. As the Swedish women look upon it they flush 
with indignation and the men clinch their fists and renew their 
oaths of loyalty to the fatherland. A mile or two away, at Skansen, 
in the park, are the many structures which hold the products and 
portray the actual life of Swedish generations, from the mud hut of 
the barbarians down to the fine city which is the abundant fruitage 
of the high civilization that has resulted from the ambition, indus- 
try, valor and honor of Sweden. And, by the way, the military 
guards at Skansen are in the buff and blue, the leather breeches and 
top boots, the great coats and three-cornered hats of Washington's 
army, which we must have borrowed from Gustavus Adolphus. 

That we have not done such things as these very largely or 
always with the best of judgment is not because we are lacking in 
events to portray or history to teach. The history of Holland and 
Britain, indeed the history of all intellectual and constitutional 
progress in all lands, is our inheritance. But we have to go no 
farther back than the first settlements upon the Hudson river to 
find both great and picturesque events to illustrate the evolution 
of the material state, and fascinating stories to quicken the com- 
mercial, scholarly, political, and military doings of the people. We 
are plutocrats in the materials that must touch the pride, quicken 
the heartbeats, and enlarge the sense of responsibility of every one 
who is worth his salt and lives upon New York soil. 

There is hardly a town in this State that is without its historic 
episodes and traditions. There is hardly a county that has not a 
shrine made sacred, not a stream that has not been crimsoned by 
blood spilt for the rights of man. To say nothing of the names of 
men, think of what Morningside Heights, and Fort Lee, and 
Stony Point, and Albany, and Schenectady, and Schoharie, and 
Cherry Valley, and Wyoming, and Oriskany, and Oswego, and 
Saratoga, and Fort Edward, and Lake George, and Lake Cham- 
plain, and Ticonderoga, and Crown Point, and Plattsburg, and 
many others, signify in the cause of human opportunity and Ameri- 
can nationality. And it is not all a matter of soldiers by any 
means. W T e had in every part of this State, at a very early day, as 



124 

fine a pioneer farming civilization, as successful manufacturing and 
commercial accomplishments, as the world has even seen. We 
have had as brave and fascinating struggles for the stability of 
political institutions, as much self-sacrifice for the upbuilding of 
churches and for their freedom and harmony, as intelligent and 
generous and abiding a faith in schools, as ever honored and en- 
riched the life of any people in the world. It is all in our history, 
it is expressed in our institutions, and it bears upon our life. 

It is our business to see that the children in the New York 
schools, for their own good and for the country's sake, get their 
proper share in all this. They are to get the parts of it that they 
can assimilate, and get it at times and in forms and quantities that 
will be good for their patriotic health. If they become really con- 
cerned about some part of it, they will be about other parts of it. 
If their love of it begins to grow, it will keep on growing. The 
generalities, the high points, the speculations, or the philosophy of 
history, are not of much concern to young people. They want the 
facts, the action, of it. They want the poetry and the glamor of 
it. They will come to understand something of the reason and 
the result of it. It is to be hoped that the Division of History in 
the Education Department and the teachers in the schools will 
realize their opportunity to serve the State by refusing to have 
their faith unsettled by professional critics, and by teaching history 
to the children by realistic pictures and by inspiring words. 



THE NECESSARY BASIS OF THE TEACHER'S 

TENURE 



THE NECESSARY BASIS OF THE TEACHER'S TENURE * 

For many years much has been said in our educational conven- 
tions about the desirability of a permanent tenure of position for 
all the teachers in the State. It has seemed to me a troublesome 
subject, but I am glad to say that as I have thought of it more 
carefully with a view to the preparation of this paper some of the 
difficulties have disappeared. My conclusion is that the State might 
very safely, and probably with advantage to its schools, establish 
the principle that whenever a teacher is once employed the employ- 
ment shall be permanent, thereby meaning that the teacher shall be 
entitled to the position until he or she resigns or is removed by the 
trustees for a cause recognized by the law. But this principle can 
not safely be made universal in this State unless the right of re- 
moval for cause is to be strongly upheld and freely exercised, and 
unless the causes for removal are held to include all things which 
are not consistent with the complete and proper management of the 
school and all things which do not make for the vital and efficient 
instruction of pupils. 

No one must imagine that this is a mere matter of protecting 
teachers. Real teachers need little protection. If they are abused 
in one place, they ordinarily get a better place. Doubtless they do 
need to have their rights defined by law and recognized by prac- 
tice, so that the small number of contemptible men who get upon 
boards of education may have notice and govern themselves ac- 
cordingly. But this is a matter which must turn not so much 
upon the interests of the teachers as upon the good of the schools. 
And it may as well be said that I have no patience what- 
ever with teachers who agitate for their imaginary rights re- 
gardless of their drawbacks and misdoings. Our task is to 
distinguish the just rights from the selfish interests of the teacher, 
and to reconcile those just rights of the teacher with the best good 
of the schools. Perhaps it will be clearer if we turn it around and 
say that the problem is to determine what are the just rights of the 
teacher on the basis of the most good to the schools. No one can, 
with an honest face, whether teacher or not, ask more or accept 
less than that. 



1 Address before the New York State Teachers Association, at Al- 
bany, N. Y., November 28, 191 1. 

127 



128 

A protected tenure for teachers is no new thing with us. We 
have 43,017 teachers in the public schools of the State. Of these, 
25,722 are in cities where the tenure is permanent, and 6652 are in 
the union districts where the employment is from year to year and 
is practically permanent if the teacher is reasonably satisfactory. 
So there are 10,643 teachers outside of the cities and union dis- 
tricts whose employment is only from year to year and in the com- 
mon thought of the districts is wholly subject to the election of trus- 
tees. These country teachers are protected by law much more than 
they were. They have definite if not perpetual terms of employment ; 
they can not be dismissed within the term without cause; they have 
the contract in writing and they get their pay as often as every 
month. 

True, the Education Law prohibits a board in a union district 
from employing a teacher for a longer term than one year, and 
likewise prohibits a sole trustee from employing a teacher for a 
term extending beyond his own term of office. The reason for this 
is that these local boards and trustees too often employed favorites 
and entered into contracts which were not for the good of the 
schools. It must be obvious enough that no law can be upheld 
which does not have, for its first object, the good of the schools ; 
and it must also be obvious enough that the law has to deal with 
many school trustees who fail utterly or in very considerable meas- 
ure intelligently to promote the interests of the districts they are 
chosen to represent. But that does not shake the faith of intelli- 
gent people in the decentralized system of school administration. 
We must never forget that our schools are the people's schools in a 
great sense that does not inhere in any other national system of 
education, and that there are the weightiest reasons why the peo- 
ple shall manage them directly, to the fullest extent shown 
by experience to be compatible with the good name of the schools 
and the efficiency of the teaching. When a board is mean and 
weak enough to sacrifice a good teacher in order to appoint 
another, with the idea that it will do a favor for a friend or be of 
advantage to a political party, as sometimes happens, I regret it for 
two distinct reasons. First, because of the outrage upon the 
teacher: one who can do such a thing as that deserves a dose of 
electricity — not of course such a dose as the law prescribes for a 
man convicted of murder in the first degree, but such a jolt as will 
make him wonder why he was ever allowed to have anything to do 
with the management of schools. And second, because it limits and 



129 

sets back the faith of the people, and particularly of experts, in so 
large a measure of popular and direct management of the schools. 
But we need not be discouraged. Where there is one trustee who 
abuses the trust, there are nine who execute it conscientiously, ac- 
cording to their lights, and the thing to do is to turn on the lights 
for the nine, and turn on enough voltage to kill, officially, the one. 

But let us get into this a little more deeply. The school organi- 
zation has checks and balances : it exacts much of teachers, and 
when it does that it enters into compensatory obligations. Teach- 
ers certificates are earned by study, by experience, often by sacri- 
fice: they ought to be worth something. They are of different 
grades : that should and does mean differing values. Those of 
higher grade and therefore of larger value stand for more study, 
more experience, ripened spirit, proved adaptation to particular and 
exacting duties, and complete devotion to the teacher's calling. 
The interests of the school system require not only that no school 
shall be taught except by a certificated teacher, that is, by one of 
some proved capacity, but they also require advancing grades of 
certificates representing increasing capacity and maturing adapta- 
tion and efficiency. This scheme of graded certificates calls for 
more and more study, sacrifice and success. The school system 
can not exact all this without entering into reciprocal obligations. 
It must protect the certificates. It must make them of the value to 
the teacher that they pretend to be. It must throw the strongest 
safeguards about the certificates that represent the most profes- 
sional culture, and the longest and most successful service. 

This system of examining and certificating teachers has been in 
operation in this State from the days of the Dutch West India 
Company. In all these three hundred years it has been growing 
more and more elaborate and complete. It has made rather rapid 
progress in the last twenty-five years. It has in that time been 
placed upon a really rational and impregnable basis. It is a just 
system. It is incapable of special favors or resentments. Its re- 
wards have to go to those who work for and deserve them; it is 
compelled to turn back the undeserving. In character, purpose 
and attainments, the teachers give exceptional support to, and have 
unusual claims upon, the protection of the State. The State 
exacts much of them before it allows them to teach at all, and 
after they have commenced it expects them to progress in culture 
and efficiency or leave the service. No business calls for greater 
expertness, aptness, and patience than that of instructing children. 



130 

No one in the public service is more liable to be involved in mis- 
understandings with the people and more subject to mistreatment 
by public officials, than are the teachers. As a class they are al- 
most incapable of defending themselves. They realize that it is 
against good policy to be involved in controversy. If they have 
troubles, they are likely to be with people who are coarser than 
themselves, and they would have small chance in a mere war of 
words or a mere measuring of strength with such. Surely the State 
which is dependent upon and claims all this is bound to protect as 
well as it can those who render it a really high and true service. 

The State has developed and it manages the system by which 
teachers are certificated. All the states in the Union have done it, 
and New York far more completely than any other. For its own 
moral life and intellectual progress it says who may and who shall 
not teach in the State's system of schools. There is some protec- 
tion in that if rationally done, and certainly so if it is justly pro- 
gressive, because it does give merit its opportunity and it does 
save the competent and worthy from contact and competition with 
the incapable and the unworthy. But that only makes a mere be- 
ginning in the process of protection that is vital to the comfort and 
deserts of the teachers. The larger part of the task is not under 
the direct management of the State. The menace to the teacher 
comes not through the licensing system but through the employ- 
ment and the treatment by employers. That is in the hands of 49 
city boards of education, 623 union district boards, and the trus- 
tees in 9942 rural school districts. These boards and trustees are 
changing continually. Thousands of new men and women are 
chosen every year. Nearly all these new men and women have 
absolutely correct intentions, and most of them adjust themselves 
to the service of the schools in ways that do them credit. But 
some seek the responsibility which better and busier people would 
avoid, in order to gain some end of their own ; a few are naturally 
brutal; some have favorites to aid; some like to show their neigh- 
bors that they have power to do things no matter who suffers; 
some try to make patronage of the schools upon the false idea that 
it will aid a party; and some would subordinate common schools 
to some denominational dogma and to the supposed advantage of 
a church. All this bears upon promotions as well as original em- 
ployment. Besides this, and whether new officials come in or not, 
one teacher in contact with the same families for a long time will 
gather their affections or their animosities in proportion to the 



i3i 

length of service, and these will necessarily be reflected in the offi- 
• cial acts of boards and trustees. In indescribable ways these things 
affect teachers, very often unjustly, and they will continue to do 
so until there are no trustees who are capable of injustice or until 
all their doings are regulated by laws that are thoroughly enforced. 
Now, anything that the State does to regulate the official conduct 
of local school officials is a limitation upon local self-government. 
That is undesirable where unnecessary. The more local school 
government there is that is wise and just and strong, the better 
will be the local schools and the stronger will be the State system 
of schools. It is not more a question of right than of expediency. 
The Legislature would be entirely within its constitutional power 
if it were to take the employment and immediate control of teach- 
ers wholly away from local officers, but it would be a very un- 
American and a very unwise thing to do. The best attainable State 
system of schools will be assured when we discover the point of 
equipoise between State control and local management. And the 
longer the arm of that balance that is on the side of local independ- 
ence, the better it is for the schools, the people, and the State. It 
is even better that local authority shall do many things which it 
does not do as well as the State might do them, because the only 
way that people can learn to do them and get in the habit 
of doing them, is by doing them. But every citizen, every stranger 
within our gates, every moral and commercial interest of the State, 
has interests which are involved in the State's system of educa- 
tion ; and therefore the State at large can not allow any section to 
be without sufficient schools to open the door of opportunity to the 
childern of that section, and it can not allow local mismanagement to 
reconcile any district to schools that grow poorer and weaker rather 
than better and stronger. If you will show me just how little or 
how much the State must do to stimulate popular concern about 
the schools; what it must do or leave undone to lead towns and 
districts to know that they have very poor schools when their super- 
intendents and teachers lead them to think they have the best; 
what act or omission to act on the part of the State will impel the 
people of a city or district to courses which will force the school 
to give their children better training, you will not only point out the 
exact spot to which the State should go in exercising control over 
the local government of the schools, but also the exact spot at 
which it should stop. 

But we are not to be abashed by impracticables who talk about 
5 



132 

the autocratic exercise of the State's power in education. It is the 
common educational opinion, and it is rapidly coming to be the 
popular opinion in America, that very few of the States go as far 
as they will have to go in stimulating local initiative and in regu- 
lating and limiting ignorance, conceit, or viciousness in the man- 
agement of the schools. Healthy public opinion is everywhere in 
favor of every legal authority and every civic force, general or 
local, doing everything possible to energize education. And in 
practice the thing works smoothly enough. Look at the cities, 
towns and districts of the State of New York. In the cities and 
best towns there are so many people, and so many who really 
know much about good schools, there is so much money invested 
in the business of the schools, and there are so many teachers whose 
rights have to be fixed and regarded, that the whole system ordi- 
narily moves along smoothly enough. If there is a sane and effi- 
cient superintendent, the system grows better and better. If 
there is a poor one, a way comes in the course of time to get rid 
of him. If a conceited or a corrupt board of education gets in 
control, it is regulated and after a while removed. The State 
exercises control only on the rare occasions when something very 
bad has developed. Ordinarily it has little or nothing to do in the 
communities where the best educational work is being done ; in- 
deed, it gets support from, and it is glad to feel the control of, 
such cities and towns. It feels the support and control of such 
cities and towns more than it supports or controls them. Indeed, 
its only power comes from them. It is where sentiment is low, 
rights uncertain, and the procedure unsettled; where there is little 
wholesome local initiative and no vital educational aggressiveness, 
that the aid and power of the State, that is, the aid and power of 
the stronger districts, must go if the general excellence of the edu- 
cational system is to promote, or even keep up with, the material 
growth and the political significance of the State. The State has to 
legislate for general conditions, but the law is made for and felt 
most by the conditions that are the worst. The laws are inactive 
except in conditions that call for them. They must be active when 
and where necessary. Don't be superficial about this important 
matter. Think about it and you will be impressed with the fact 
that the men and women with whom education is a love, and moral 
culture a passion, never have their feelings outraged by any State 
invasion of local prerogative, and never discover any menace to 
education in the growing educational power and the quickened 



133 

educational activity of the Empire State. It is only when some- 
thing mean or wrong is done by some misrepresentative, in the fair 
name of the State, that such men and women are heard from, as 
they are bound to be. 

It may have occurred to you that I have been wandering from my 
theme, but the tenure of the teacher can not be well considered 
without an appeal to general principles that must of necessity be 
of state-wide application. The right to teach when employed is 
always regulated and conferred by the State. In theory and pre- 
tense it has always been so, though until recent years it was dele- 
gated to local officers who often exercised their powers very ignor- 
antly or abused them most outrageously. But while the power to 
certify teachers has always been reserved to the State, the power 
to employ them has always been conceded to the city or school dis- 
trict. And tenure is a matter of employment. Of course all teach- 
ers are employed by public officers and all the doings of public offi- 
cers are under the control or within the reach of the law. How 
far should the State go in restricting the absolute freedom of 
boards of education and trustees to employ such certificated teach- 
ers, for such length of time, such pay, and such other conditions 
as they please? It has gone some length already: how much fur- 
ther should it go? How domineering and unjust shall the law 
allow an employing officer to be to a certificated teacher, when he 
has developed a penchant for parading his brief authority or has 
conceived a fancy for another teacher? 

The answer is, I think, that we must believe in the people; that 
we must assume that boards of education and trustees are honest 
and sincere, as in nearly every case they are; that the State must 
lay down the general principles within which they shall confine 
themselves, and then afford them the free right to use their discre- 
tion, within such confines, and expect that they will perform their 
duties like honest men and women and according to the rule of 
reason. But while we believe, and assume, and expect all this, we 
have experience enough to know that there will be many cases in 
which our benevolent assumptions will not be realized. The schools 
go on term after term and year after year, but the employing offi- 
cers change continually. The vagaries are multitudinous and the 
conditions are kaleidoscopic. The State seems bound to protect its 
certificates, see that the teacher is protected against vagaries or 
something worse, and that the schools have steadiness and con- 
tinuity of procedure. To that end it seems perfectly reasonable 



134 

to me that a certificated teacher when once employed shall be given 
a tenure that shall continue until the position is vacated voluntarily 
or the teacher dismissed for cause. 

But if the tenure of all teachers is to be permanent except for 
just cause, it will be necessary to extend the accepted or the legal 
causes for which the services of teachers may be properly discon- 
tinued. If we are to make the principle general that a teacher once 
employed shall be employed as long as he wishes, or until just 
cause for a change arises, it will be necessary to leave the determi- 
nation of what is just cause to the discretion of boards and trustees, 
acting perhaps in cooperation with superintendents, until it ap- 
pears that such boards or trustees have been moved by bias, or 
pique, or had some interested motive which was sufficient to dis- 
qualify them for the proper execution of their very responsible 
trust. 

But there is much for teachers as well as trustees to think of. 
Any public employee claiming a permanent tenure must maintain 
an exemplary character, offer particular preparation, accept the 
conditions and dicipline incident to the employment, meet obliga- 
tions in honorable ways, and render a service that steadily grows 
in value. Very likely the teachers do all that more completely than 
any other class of public servants. But the teaching organization 
is not altogether exempted from the weaknesses of human nature. 
Permanency of tenure has some disadvantages as well as consider- 
able justice in it. The weaker ones take advantage of it. There 
is no one here familiar with the administration of schools in a 
considerable city under permanent tenure, who does not know 
that if nothing but the efficiency of the teaching were considered, a 
considerable number of teachers would have to be removed at 
once, and then still others would have to be removed next year. 
A few will break down morally; some will become so slatternly 
as to make themselves intolerable; others will become soured at 
the necessary discipline of the service, or estranged from the fami- 
lies they must serve; still others will stagnate professionally, or 
actually recede in teaching attainments. 

The cause of half of this will be with the leadership, with the 
board or with the superintendent. The board may be unsub- 
stantial or unjust, the superintendent may be a shallow pretender 
or a conceited martinet. Teachers know better than others do 
about the capacity and the moral integrity of an administration. 
They can not stand everything. There is not a large percentage 



135 

of them that will not gladly follow a capable leadership, or respond 
to sane, frank, sincere, sympathetic criticism. A general and im- 
perative condition to successful permanent tenure is that the ad- 
ministration and the supervision of the system shall not be of a 
kind which contributes to the causes which justify dismissal. 

But the system must progress. If it does not the causes must 
be removed, and quite as much when they rest with the teacher as 
when they rest with the trustee. Can we specify the causes which 
shall justly interrupt the employment of the teacher? Unsound- 
ness of moral character is of course sufficient. Rebellion against 
discipline can have no other result. The management may be 
unjust and may justify a revolution, and if so there ought to be 
revolt, but teachers would better not think of it unless there is 
real cause for it, or without being armed with the facts and 
equipped with the strength which will make it successful. Find- 
ing a new place is sometimes better than revolt. Disagreements 
with families of the children in the school may justify forcing a 
change in the teacher: even though the change may not be justi- 
fied on the ground of moral right, it may be better for the school 
and even better for the teacher. Conduct in life which, without 
being immoral, impedes efficiency or brings discredit upon the 
schools, may be a sufficient cause for removal of the teacher. In 
common schools the teachers must regard the circumstances and 
opinions of all the people. Pedagogical reasons, lack of neatness * 
and of control, the waning of the teaching power, may amply justify 
the termination of the employment. Teachers must keep their 
own agreements, either express or implied, in order to be in 
position to exact their rights. If a teacher leaves one position, 
when under engagement to continue, because he can get more 
money in another place, he has no claims to the protection of his 
tenure. We can not assume that a teacher must be guilty of 
something that should send him to jail, before he may be required 
to cease teaching in a particular place or altogether. He must 
attract good citizens, must grow in the teaching power ' and the 
teaching spirit, or they will be justified in wanting a change. All 
the circumstances can not be anticipated nor all the causes specified 
here or in the law. The good of the schools, the esprit de corps 
of the system, must settle the matter. If a teacher is in the way 
of the schools growing better, he or she should go. 

It must be settled by the responsible authorities charged with the 
management of the particular school, and, if necessary, it must in 



the last analysis be determined by an authority that is without local 
bias or prejudice, that is sympathetic with teachers, that is in 
sympathy with parents also, that is intent upon the progress of 
schools, and that knows how to build up both the sure foundations 
and the more ornate superstructure of a school system with edu- 
cational power in it. It would doubtless be better for the system 
and no more than just to the teachers if all employment were for 
an indefinite time, provided dismissal might be made very freely by 
honest trustees for any cause recognized by the law or which 
would be sustained by the State Department. But whatever is done 
must be done in the open, at least so far as the teachers concerned 
wish to have it. It is not necessary that everything should be 
paraded before the public, but no teacher should be forced out of 
a place except upon notice, and for a real cause which can be 
stated in writing. Of course the power of removal should generally 
be exercised with some reference to the time of year ; for im- 
morality it should be summary; for any cause which menaces the 
discipline and routine of the school it may properly be speedy; for 
any reason which is substantial but not immediately urgent, it 
should be delayed until the close of the school year. The right 
of dismissal for cause should apply to the higher officers and 
principals even more rigidly than to class teachers. If for any 
cause whatever the deliberate sentiment of a community wants a 
change in the office of superintendent of schools or principal of 
the high school, that sentiment ought to be respected. Of course 
it must act decently and without senseless precipitancy. But no 
self-respecting man worthy of a high place in the schools can wish 
to remain in a place where the deliberate judgment of a respect- 
able board and the settled sentiment of the community are against 
him. Public sentiment is ordinarily favorable enough to teachers. 
Often it is too favorable. It is sometimes so considerate, without 
full knowledge, that demagogues play upon it. When it is adverse 
it must be accepted. The power of the people and of their repre- 
sentatives over the teaching body in their schools, acting within 
the limitations of the law and according to the moral principles 
which we all ought to understand, must be absolute. 

Nothing has been said about pensions or retiring allowances for 
'worn-out teachers. It is a subject by itself, and to me a trouble- 
some one. I have always held off about this because of my inherent 
opposition to a State pension system. But something will have to 
be done, not only in justice to teachers who have worn themselves 



137 

out for small pay in the public service, but for the sake of the 
schools which can not cast these worthy teachers out even though 
their efficiency is over and they need a little period of rest on earth 
before the rest everlasting. We have been doing something in 
this direction in the last year. Much more will have to be done if 
there is to be early or very substantial result. In the meantime, 
if some millionaire wants to do a great deal for education in New 
York, why does he not create a fund for the relief of exhausted 
teachers of long service in the public schools, and therefore for 
the uplift of the public schools themselves? The State has opened 
the way: why will not some men and women with means walk in 
it ? Is nothing but a college or a university worthy the thought of 
a man or women with money? 

Then my conclusions, stated in a paragraph, are that the em- 
ployment and promotion and compensation and discontinuance of 
all teachers should continue to be the functions of officials chosen 
by the people in the cities and school districts. We must continue 
to decentralize administration to the fullest extent consistent with 
efficiency and progress. But the educational system is the State' 
system, and the State must regulate it by law so far as experience 
shows to be necessary for its good, taking it in its entirety. When 
once employed the service of all the teachers might well continue 
until interrupted by death, resignation, or discontinuance by 
authority for cause. There is no apparent reason why one teacher 
should go out and another come in merely because beards and 
trustees change. But with the more permanent tenure the teachers 
will have to show more preparation, adaptation to particular 
position, and professional progress. The causes of removal and 
the procedure will have to be thoroughly regulated by law. Every- 
thing will have to be done in the open. The trustee who removes 
a teacher through malice or to make an opening for a favorite, 
should be punished for it. The right of appeal from local action 
to State authority as to the justness of the removal will have to 
be well recognized. There the quibbles of pettifoggers will have 
to be brushed aside, and an ultimate decision made as to whether 
the removal was free from bad motive and unreasonable official 
conduct, and whether, without injustice to any legal right of the 
teacher and with an eye only to the good of the school, it should 
be sustained. The progress of the school is the paramount matter ; 
there is no more reason why the State should permit the school to 
be arrested, should permit the whole system to be weakened, in 



138 

the interests of weak, unprogressive, or worn-out teachers, than 
why it should permit it to be menaced by the meanness or the 
badness of boards and trustees. Teachers who do not grow in 
professional culture and teaching spirit have small claims; those 
who do advance in these things have claims that are irresistible 
and that are widely recognized. It is to the interest of the State 
to guard them. All that is necessary is to write down the legal 
principles that properly apply and set up the administrative practice 
that ought to prevail. There is no great difficulty about it. The 
interests of teachers who deserve protection, and the interests of 
schools that deserve to advance are altogether consistent; and the 
complete reconciliation of these interests in the Education Law 
is likely to contribute as much as anything else can to uphold the 
honor and promote the progress of the State. 



WEAKNESSES IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 



WEAKNESSES IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES x 

This generation and the one preceding it have witnessed almost 
the whole of the development of American universities. Of course 
we inherited some of our thinking and some of our plans from 
other countries, and of course the doings before the Civil War 
have influenced our later doings in some measure, but in designs, 
construction, proportions, cost, ideals, and work performed, our 
highest institutions of learning have been created since the 
chivalrous and magnanimous peace that was declared at Appomat- 
tox. We used to think of the teachers of an advanced institution 
as less than a score, but now we think of them in hundreds ; of 
students in hundreds, but now in thousands; of property and reve- 
nues and endowment in thousands, but now in millions. We used 
to talk of colleges, but now of universities ; of college courses, but 
now of university " offerings." The courses used to relate arbi- 
trarily and exclusively to literary culture and to training for the 
ministry, for medicine, and for law ; the " offerings " now bear very 
intensively upon all that but upon infinitely more; upon political 
administration, upon all the commercial and industrial employ- 
ments, and upon many of the mere vocations of the people. Only 
the rich or the unusually earnest used to go to college and the 
rest got on somehow and the business of the country was managed 
very well ; but now young men and women must go to the universi- 
ties or be in extreme peril of losing social opportunity and of 
waiving all likelihood of efficiency and success in business. One 
must go to a university to become prosperous and respectable. 
And we have even begun to hear the first whisperings of a demand 
that nothing shall be allowed in the entire educational system 
which does not settle it for boys and girls that they shall go to a 
university, regardless of conditions and attributes, and whether 
they will or no. Children, parents, states, industrial enterprises; 
political institutions, all the processes and the very freedom of our 
entire educational system, are being rushed and restrained by forces 
that fair judgment would hold to be not absolutely logical, not 
altogether altruistic, not exclusively charged with the responsibility 
of settling all the policies of the country. 



1 Address given before the Associated Academic Principals at Syracuse, 
December 28, 191 1. 

141 



142 

I have, of course, no sympathy with the ideas of Mr R. T. Crane 
of Chicago, who has published so much rather virile writing in 
opposition to all schools above the elementary. But I have respect 
for him. He is clearly sincere. He is a thoroughly successful 
captain of industry; his house distributed millions of dollars to its 
thousands of employees at the last Christmas season as their share 
in the prosperity of the business ; and he would have to be named 
among the first twenty men who have done the most for the indus- 
trial prosperity of the middle west. He says that educators assail 
him without reading his books. I am not going to assail him, and 
I have read his books. But I differ with him radically and as a 
matter of course. He hardly believes in schools at all. He accepts 
the elementary schools, but nothing beyond. He thinks youth 
should be trained wholly in offices, factories and shops, as they 
were when he was a boy. He knows all about industries and banks, 
but he has been outside of the intellectual advance of the last two 
generations. With the vocabulary and brusqueness of the factory, 
he calls universities frauds and says they rob parents and children. 
Of course he has had his rejoinder. He says one university presi- 
dent called him an " ass," another an " idiot," and a third a 
" troglodyte." He does not seem to resent this : he says it proves 
his contention that the higher education is worthless, and supports 
his opinion of the kind of timber the universities use to make 
presidents of. It would be very amusing reading, but that it is a 
bit pathetic. 

His vital error is that he believes in nothing educational outside 
of "business," nothing that unlocks new truth and is uplifting 
aside from the doubtful way which " business " has of doing it. 
He has attained success by drudgery and determination: he thinks 
his success is the only kind and his way of reaching success the 
only way. Both the strength and the weakness of the man are 
shown by the fact that he does not seem to care if no one agrees 
with him. Public opinion is of weight; well-nigh universal public 
opinion upon a policy that has been evolved out of the origin, the 
history, the intellectual and moral aspirations, and the physical 
struggles of a democracy of a hundred millions of human beings, 
is bound to make one man care. Without his realizing it, Mr 
Crane's methods of inquiry are as unfair and impossible of logical 
results as his restricted habits of mind. He sends to busy men 
extended questionnaires which can not be answered categorically, 
and is critical if not abusive because they are not. He gives his 



143 

time and spends his money in propagating an individual vagary 
rather than in pursuing an open-minded investigation marked by 
decent respect for the opinions of mankind. To answer his con- 
tentions would require the collection of much data and probably six 
months of the time of a man who is hardly likely to be without 
more pressing if not more profitable employment than proving 
what the whole world holds to be obvious and established. 

There are some things that he says which might well be answered, 
and doubtless there are some that might well be heeded. Of 
course the facts of the case afford, and the literature of the sub- 
ject contains, ample answers, but the pertinent facts may well be 
arrayed and the reasons may well be adduced to aid those who are 
less familiar with the matter than we are. But if he says things 
which ought to be heeded, then they ought to be heeded none the 
less because he says them. Great movements and great institutions 
need criticism ; surely criticism ought not to be left to their enemies 
nor disregarded because their enemies make it. Having no thought 
of answering Mr Crane, and putting aside the main contentions of 
his book, I am nevertheless free to say that his claims impel me to 
speak of some weaknesses in the structure and policies of our 
American universities which I have long had in mind. 

Of course I must speak of them as a whole and also as a type. 
What is said will apply to some more than to others, and perhaps 
to some not at all. Yet we have developed an American type of 
university : there are certain well defined characteristics, a certain 
oneness, about our higher institutions of learning which distinguish 
them very clearly from similar institutions in other lands. The 
older ones have been made over by, and the newer ones have been 
evolved out of, our universal system of common schools, out of 
our fundamental political principle that every child of the Republic 
shall have his even chance, an open road to the most liberal learn- 
ing, upon which road he may advance just as far as he will. The 
common passion for all learning and all schools has brought public 
support and private endowment to our universities, and in turn 
that has erected in those universities a system of government, a 
scheme of organization, a plan of procedure, and an outlook upon 
an objective point, that are all far apart from those in the uni- 
versities of other lands; even from the universities of other peoples 
who are possessed of political and religious freedom and not open 
to the charge of being behind us in their love of learning. This 
process began very early in our history and it has become more and 



144 

more accentuated by our progress and growth. Our democracy 
and our money have given rise to a type of university that is 
peculiar to ourselves. In this type, and often in consequence of 
the very causes which have created its greatness, there have de- 
veloped some weaknesses, which I shall not refrain from mentioning 
because they may have been offset by compensatory advantages, 
because they are more of a menace to some institutions than to 
others, or because they have become more pronounced in some 
parts of the country than in other parts. One who is obliged to 
speak of these things in general terms is confined to the weak- 
nesses that have appeared so commonly in the type of universities 
that has developed in America that they may be predicted at given 
stages in the progress of institutions yet to be developed. 

The lust for riches and bigness and social influence and political 
power is a weakness in American universities. It is very American, 
but it is not scholarly. It is not meant that America stands for 
grossness, but it can not be denied that its spirit and predominant 
attributes make for commercial prosperity, for business success, 
for the acquisition of houses and barns and riches, rather than for 
scholarship. Of course, riches may be very useful to the progress 
of scholarship. It is hard to see how any can asperse the motives 
of rich men and women who have given to schools. But there is 
a deep gulf between wealth and learning. Riches may weight 
learning down rather than uplift it. Noble men of means see 
this and try to avoid it, but it is not wholly avoidable. Human 
organization with plenty of means is hardly able completely to 
withstand the influences which are inherent in the conditions that 
surround commercial prosperity and accumulating wealth. Educa- 
tional institutions, as well as men, have reason enough to pray to 
be delivered from both poverty and riches. It is most surely so in 
America where fortunes are so many and so great. That it might 
be so in any other country of opportunity does not lessen its seri- 
ousness here. It is not so true of the masses in other countries 
as of the masses here, and there is little danger of the universities 
of other countries being affected by it as they are here. Real 
scholarship is seldom rich, or at least it cares little for riches. 
If rich, it puts scholarship above riches, and uses its riches to pro- 
mote scholarship. It is modest. It thrives under humble roofs 
and it dwells in pretty close relations with nature and with God. 
Its ambition is the acquisition of knowledge, and its highest am- 
bition is to liberate another atom of scientific truth. Great uni- 



145 

versifies have grown in all lands and centuries by scholars seeking 
the light and gathering about great teachers who could point the 
way to it. And if in any country the universities shall become 
brazen in their quest for money, learning will be grievously wounded 
in her own house. 

The ambition of American universities is to secure gifts and 
appropriations, to erect sumptuous buildings ; and to multiply 
teachers and matriculants has become so common and pronounced 
as to be a menace. The president is often chosen because he can 
get money. The potentiality of the organization goes into this quest 
for bigness, this consuming American desire to be first in the race 
or at the top of the heap. Mere bigness is not necessarily a weak- 
ness ; it even has certain advantages ; but the success of presidents 
is measured by the material growth and by numbers, and the 
struggle for bigness and particularly for magnificence benumbs 
and belittles the power to struggle for knowledge and for truth. 
The passion and the trend set up standards that mislead youth and 
confuse the common thinking of the country. That is a decided 
weakness in our American universities and it is, in a considerable 
sense, peculiar to them. 

That is not all that is peculiar to them. They gain the advan- 
tages and share some of the disadvantages of our democracy, of 
our universal support of, and universal disposition to manage, all 
education. The democratic influence in our universities mani- 
fested itself at the very founding of so aristocratic an institution 
as Harvard College. The uniform usage of the Old World has 
given the management of the universities into the hands of teachers. 
At Oxford, and in some measure at Cambridge and Paris, the con- 
trol had been divided, but it was only a division of functions be- 
tween teachers. Harvard set up the lay board of control, repre- 
sentative of donors or of the state, and all American universities 
have followed it, voluntarily but of practical necessity. It is not 
unlike the division between the public and the professional con- 
trol that pervades our entire system of education. It has exerted 
many and mighty influences, and while the good results outweigh 
those not so good, it must be said that some are distinctly 
weakening. 

It was supposed that this arrangement would assure the per- 
manent democracy of the institutions. With the wealth and the 
social tendencies which have resulted from the munificent support 
of states and the monumental gifts from wealthy and large-hearted 



146 

donors, it is doing more to make them autocratic on the basis of 
possessions and power, than any scholastic exclusiveness could 
possibly have done. 

Without saying that in itself it is necessarily a weakness, the 
lay board of control, representative of donors or of the state, estab- 
lished when Harvard was founded, and followed by all our Ameri- 
can universities, has certainly resulted in some troubles that are 
manifest enough. It has often weakened the support of the most 
scholarly teachers and sometimes made it pretty nearly impossible 
to get rid of a teacher even though he be not worth the salt his 
physical system craves. If a teacher can play the demagogue or 
has a friend in a meddlesome trustee, he is practically beyond the 
reach of scholarly discipline. Moreover, arbitrary annual tuition 
fees and fixed salaries for teachers, while not exclusively American, 
have had a development here far beyond that of other lands. The 
common usage in other universities has been to exact fees on the 
basis of courses, and to pay teachers on the basis of the number 
of students attracted by their work. The usage here is to charge 
an annual fee for whatever the student will take in a year, and to 
pay teachers an annual salary for whatever they do, whether for 
many or for few. Something is to be said for both plans, but the 
system of the Old World, whatever else may be said of it, puts a 
teacher to his utmost and provides an automatic way for eliminat- 
ing a weak or an obsolete one, and the system of the New World 
certainly experiences a good deal of demoralization through the sal- 
aries and tenure of teachers. Between the board of trustees, the 
president, the rival claims of teachers, the feelings of students, 
the state of the treasury, and the outside influences that creep in, 
it is small wonder that salaries are not always regulated on the 
basis of scholastic merit, or that it is almost impossible to get rid 
of an instructor who has not committed a legal or a moral crime. 
And as crime is practically unknown among teachers, the best often 
go unrewarded and the rest reap the advantages of a system which 
has no automatic and no easy way of discrimination upon the 
basis of merit. The result is a good many weak factors in our 
university faculties, with the prospect of a good many more unless 
parents and students begin to discriminate sharply against insti- 
tutions which do not cure the trouble. But all universities are 
popular in their own territory, and popular discrimination seems 
pretty nearly impossible now. 

Our democratic university government affords opportunities for 



147 

scheming and for successful appeals to flabby sentiment by mem- 
bers of faculties, which are impossible in the Old World. For 
example, wide open elective courses were sending us to an un- 
thinkable situation. The difficulty had to be cured by reducing 
the number of electives and by requiring students to take certain 
courses. This has to be arranged by faculties, and creates the 
opportunity for requiring students to take the courses of certain 
teachers. That is an advantage to those teachers and makes for 
log-rolling. It will be idle to say that log-rolling is impossible in 
a university. Of course it is of "the academic variety and some- 
what disguised, but there is hardly an American university that 
is more free from phases of it than the county court house which 
is a few miles away. Look at yesterday's or tomorrow's papers 
to find the man of academic degrees who is long in his vocabulary 
and short in sense if not in principle, who is dishonoring and de- 
grading a noble institution in the sacred name of " academic free- 
dom." These things seem to foreshadow the time when the com- 
pensation of university teachers will have to depend in some 
measure at least upon the demands for their work, or when they 
can be " resigned " without academic or public commotions which 
threaten administrations. 

In accompaniment of all this is that passionate fondness of uni- 
versity teachers, as between themselves and even before the public, 
for that irrelevant discussion which seems to destroy all sense of 
educational perspective. Doubtless there is psychological reason 
for it: very likely it is an expression of the inevitable reaction 
from the labors of the library, the lecture room, and the labora- 
tory. Whatever the cause, there is no lack of profusion about it. 
They will keep it going by the hour with apparently more pleasure 
than they can find in any other pastime unless they are menaced 
by the apparition of coming to an agreement. They remind me 
of Mrs Kelly, a witty Irish dame, who was certainly advised of 
some of the social curves when she said to her neighbor ".How are 
ye, Mrs Mahar? Not because I care a hoot how ye are, but just 
to start the conversation." 

In the freedom of the country, in the multiplicity of opinions 
and of things to be done, university men with mere training in 
theory and little or no practical experience have little hesitation in 
representing the universities. The university men best qualified 
to speak are least willing to do so, and those least qualified are 
quite willing to attract the public attention which does not dis- 



148 

criminate. A young instructor in economics feels himself per- 
fectly qualified to advise the national association of bankers or of 
manufacturers. It is done not in a personal but in a representative 
capacity, and it accustoms the people to a great deal from the uni- 
versities that does not inspire confidence or enlarge the respect 
that is worth having. 

Again, universities, through some of their colleges or depart- 
ments, often multiply work unreasonably, with the result that they 
have more to do, have more students, and have claims for more 
money. Subjects that are not at all involved or obscure are given 
serious aspects and extended into many offerings with appalling 
titles, enveloped in a heavy atmosphere, and presented with a sub- 
lime seriousness that seems to invest them with profound mystery, 
learning and erudition. It is seemingly a natural outgrowth of our 
educational situation and it seems impossible to prevent it. Pos- 
sibly it would not be well to prevent it. There may in time be 
compensatory advantages about it, but if our universities are going 
to value a uniformly substantial character, expressed by their 
graduates and manifest to the public, there will surely be a reaction 
against it. 

There is another side of the matter. Our universities have a 
trouble that is common in all American schools. They have at 
least to respond to the demands upon them. Some encourage de- 
mands that are neither educationally sound nor practically wise, 
because the result will add to their bigness. In any event, those 
demands are for more than they can do thoroughly well. The 
American people have less inertia and contentment than the peoples 
of Europe. Over there people stay where they were born or 
move to America. Here every one is always going somewhere in 
quest of riches, position and titles. It has long been very natural 
to go to the schools, and it is particularly fashionable now to go to 
the universities. Each wants something when he gets there that 
few others want. Each expects the universities to respond to all 
his wants. All this enlarges the buildings and equipment astonish- 
ingly, and multiplies the teachers and the classes of teachers inordi- 
nately. And the teaching in the universities is not much measured 
except by examinations which the teachers themselves set, hold, 
and rate. If we were to classify the teaching in America en the 
basis of pedagogical result, we would probably hold that the best 
teaching, the most severely judged teaching, the teaching which 
must be resultful, is by the women in the primary schools. That 



149 

in the high schools is less severely judged, less responsible, more 
pretentious, and less exact. The teaching in the universities is 
hardly supervised at all; it exploits involved subjects, it is a law 
and a judge unto itself, the law of it is very confused, the judge is 
in little danger of a recall, and withal he is very confident in his 
judgments of his work. With the growth in the number of 
teachers, with the youth and inexperience that have to be accepted, 
with the demoralization of riches, with the strife for more pay and 
higher position, with all the freedom and independence, with the 
opportunities for manipulation, and with the weight of democratic 
or social influence as against purely scholastic merit, it is not sur- 
prising if faculties have been weakened and the standards ma- 
terially affected. 

If this is at all true of the faculties, it must be expected to affect 
the student bodies very materially — and it does. Oh, there are 
serious and scholarly teachers by the thousands, and there are 
earnest students by the hundreds of thousands, but it can hardly 
be denied that because of their newness, their bigness, their inde- 
pendence through wealth, and their democracy, our American uni- 
versities, speaking generally, are lacking in the exactness of the 
best scholarship and in the open-mindedness and intensiveness with 
which sound scholarship pursues the truth. Examples of this lack 
of exactness and seriousness are common enough, indeed so com- 
mon that we hardly think of them. Candidates for admission are 
not turned away because unprepared : they are " conditioned " or 
made " specials," or sent to some nearby " academic hospital " 
where they will be doctored up and saved to the institution. What- 
ever else happens, no student who will add one unit, not to the 
stature but to the girth of a university, must be lost. The term 
" research " is used in our universities with a flippancy and a pre- 
sumption that are often absurd. The elective system will probably 
justify itself if its worst evils can be cured, but it can hardly be 
said that it has not contributed to this lack of exactness and of 
intensiveness that we are thinking about. If it has enabled stu- 
dents to get what they want without taking what they do not want, 
it has also offered electives to students who, though honest enough, 
are unable to elect intelligently, and it provides " snaps " for those 
who can not get through without them. To say the very least, it 
creates unbalanced and unscholarly foundations for academic de- 
grees. It has therefore demoralized standards and made university 
honors bearing common titles of wholly different values ; it is to be 



ISO 

feared that it has demoralized the public opinion of the country and 
created the common thought that no one with either wits or money 
need have much difficulty about getting a degree. 

An American university is likely to become a little cosmopolitan 
world by itself, and sometimes not a little one. There is some- 
thing about it to attract all classes. With fine buildings and 
grounds and equipment ; with lectures and concerts and plays ; with 
fraternities and sororities and clubs ; with games and crowds and 
colors and cheers ; with the assurance that any one may come in 
and get " learning " by mixing in the throng ; with all the lies the 
old grads tell about the things they never did ; and, moreover, with 
the threat of opportunity forever lost and ambition eternally de- 
feated if one travels some other road, is it any wonder that the 
universities attract all kinds of students and not a few who are 
" students " in nothing but name ? 

There are some universities where the teachers are very exacting 
upon students, and in some universities some students are very 
exacting upon teachers. The demands of students constitute the 
life blood of universities. That university is fortunate where either 
is the case. But there are enough universities where neither is the 
case. The number of students going to our universities who might 
better never go at all, the mixed elements in the student bodies, the 
quantity of unprepared materials without serious purpose, neces- 
sarily weakens the structure of the organization and demoralizes 
its work. It is well to go to Europe to see what they are doing 
there, though no student need go to Europe to find deeper learning 
or better teaching than in America. But so long as the teachers 
are weighted by stupid and indifferent students, and so long as the 
internal organization and the environing influences fail to put a 
premium upon the best scholarship and the best teaching and re- 
quire courage for the ruthless judgment of students' work, there 
will be a structural weakness in American universities. 

Now let us change the point of view and think of the attitudes 
of our universities toward the common life of the country. And 
first toward the common schools, that overwhelming factor in the 
common life. Realizing how undesirable it is to admit so many 
conditioned and special students, they would make all other schools 
preparatory to them and thus assume to dominate the middle and 
lower school systems about which they are otherwise in none too 
close relations. They tell the high schools just what they must do 
and leave undone to prepare for college, and when the lower schools 



i5i 

try it, they say with an arrogance that paralyzes credulity that 
their freshmen have been so badly taught that the college must take 
several months to clear out their heads before they can really com- 
mence the study of the subject at all. Gracious Heavens, if the 
high schools can not be saved from this, let them be saved from 
the burden of trying to prepare for college altogether. Any way, 
why do not the universities either abolish requirements for admis- 
sion or enforce them? Of course the high schools have the same 
ambition for " bigness " that the universities have, but why not 
have it settled what classes of work the high schools can do 
thoroughly well and discontinue the expensive farce of their trying 
to do more? Or why do not the universities predicate admission 
requirements upon the purpose and the power to do their work 
rather than upon subjects and counts? The western state uni- 
versities have a better plan than our eastern endowed universities 
about this. At least it does away with the discussion that occupies 
most of the time in the academic conventions of the east. They 
inspect schools and admit on diplomas ; if the students can not do 
their work the semester examinations exclude them; they have had 
their chance and can not complain. The western students say that 
it is easy to get in but hard to stay in a western university, and 
that it is a little harder to get in an eastern university but that 
it is no task to stay in, and that one who pays the tuition long 
enough will surely get a degree. Why not have a better plan about 
this matter here? 

But the universities not only criticise the lower schools about 
the treatment of pupils who are to become college students ; they 
are now actually beginning to criticise them on the score of their 
treatment of pupils who are not going to college, and censure them 
for making it possible that any shall not go to college. Indeed, 
some of them separate the world into two classes : the learned, who 
have read Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, and Homer, and become enamored 
of Helen and Cleopatra; and the lost, who have taken all this only 
about as seriously as they do the rest of the literature and history 
of the world, and have been infected with the heresy that the 
progress of science, the accumulations of experience, and the ad- 
vance in philosophy and literature, have proved as much right as 
have Latin grammar, oratory, and history to be inscribed on the 
tables of knowledge and of law. 

A year ago several of the college or university presidents in this 
State went so far as to " say things " publicly against vocational 



152 

as compared with classical education. One would hardly expect 
them to do that at any time, but above all at the Christmas time. 
It was clearly caused by the force of our recent movement for 
training workmen. And a few months ago my friend, Dean West 
of Princeton, published a paper entitled "Vocational Training — 
A Menace to the Universities." Hard experience may lead one to 
suspect that something of all this ought to be overlooked because 
of the necessities of speech-making. It makes much difference 
whether one has to say something or really has something to say. 
It may be that, like Mrs Kelly, these university men feel the neces- 
sity of saying things merely " to keep up the conversation." If 
they really mean it, then one must ask, Do they think the country 
exists for the universities or the universities for the country? Is 
there any real danger of too few educated unproductives or of too 
few candidates for law and medicine, and of too many trained in 
skill of hand and in the application of science to industries? Is 
there any sense in resenting and resisting the making of men and 
women happier and better through improving the work of their 
hands when the country needs their better work, and much more 
of it, very imperatively? Is it wise for a university in an environ- 
ment that is almost exclusively industrial to preach a philosophy 
that is worn out anyway and at the best can only unsettle a faith 
that is both wise and good, and make many misfits in the adjust- 
ments of people to work? No one would keep any student from 
studying history and literature and philosophy and professional 
technic as exclusively as he pleases. No one entertains any doubts 
of their very vital and very large importance in the world, or 
denies their claim to the fullest measure of support. On the other 
hand, a university that has conceived the idea that cultural and 
professional learning are all that are entitled to a full measure of 
support; that its mission is to settle the destinies of boys and girls 
instead of aiding them to do it intelligently and freely for them- 
selves; or that assumes that all learning, the fullest happiness, or 
the safest citizenship and the strength of the Republic, are all 
within the limitations of classical and professional culture, is cer- 
tain to be menaced by the advancing waves of common intelligence 
even to the point where the honored lights of a hundred or a 
thousand years must be submerged. It is to be hoped that the 
weaknesses which are inevitable in new universities in such a new 
world, will not be enlarged by any serious support of such a 
fallacy as this. 



153 

Time enough must be reserved for a word about university 
morals. Probably there is no ground for criticising the good pur- 
pose of university management in America, but it is apparent I 
think that very generally the governments of the universities are 
showing a woeful lack either of strength or of courage in dealing 
with the larger bodies of students and the increasing swiftness of 
student community life. I do not believe that more go to the bad 
in the universities than would if they did not attend the universi- 
ties. It may well be doubted whether there is more evil in college 
life than in social life in general. Even so, this is not enough : 
students have no business in universities at all if they are not 
intent upon going to the good rather than half way willing to go 
to the bad. University life is an association of people who pro- 
claim scholarly aspiration and moral purpose; it ought to endure 
on no other basis ; it is bound to be an example of decent living, and 
not be content to debase public opinion and degrade the educational 
system of which it counts itself the head. The society is a selected 
one; its members are not chosen on the basis of either poverty or 
riches, or on that o.f charity or social independence, but on the 
ground of something accomplished, of pretended intellectual am- 
bition and presumed moral purpose. In these regards it must be 
held to be above the average in the state, and in government and 
conduct it must of necessity be either a good example to the state 
or a deplorably bad one. 

There are not many of us who would go back to the severe 
biblical interpretations or the intolerable religious philosophy of 
our sainted fathers and mothers. Neither would we return to the 
religious theory and practice, to the Christian exclusiveness and 
the innumerable rules of conduct, of our early American colleges. 
But we are not going to forget the history of American higher 
education and of America itself. We know what our present 
estate has grown out of and we know something of the vital basis 
upon which it may continue to enlarge. A college or university 
without religious foundations may exist in other countries, but one 
must have them before it can be an American college or university 
at all. And it must square its life, not some of its life, not its 
average life, but all of its life, with the fundamentals of its history 
and its being, or it must accept responsibility for inconsistencies 
which must necessarily hinder all the purposes which it was set 
up to promote and be more than likely in the end to destroy its 
own life. 



154 

We accept all the joys and pleasures, even all the harmless 
pranks, raillery and foolishness, of university life; we believe in 
manly and womanly sport and are glad to make concessions to it; 
we will not draw the line too hard against the more luxurious 
surroundings of modern life and the human frailties that give 
way to them. Some of us would dislike to join Chancellor Day's 
society, which would send us out to the woodshed if we wanted to 
smoke. But when it comes to the brutal vices, to drunkenness, 
licentiousness, gambling, to violating the rights of person and prop- 
erty, to maltreating other students and taking possession of theaters 
and cars, to defying the university government and also the public 
power of police, there can be no latitude for discretion about what 
is to be done, and no time for procrastination or hesitation. And 
it is simple enough. Not many rules are necessary. Demand that 
the police proceed against students just as they do against violaters 
of the peace and breakers of the law of any other class. Assume 
that all in a university are fit associates in a life' which regulates 
its conduct by moral principle and is bent upon a serious purpose: 
when it is discovered that one is not, send him out of the inclosure 
at once and for good. There will be weeping and wailing, pining 
and pleading, but let it go. There will not have to be so much 
further on because there will not be the further excesses which 
grow out of excesses unpunished; the good ship will have shown 
that she can stand heavy weather; and the captain will be honored 
for having kept her true upon her great course. 

Who can cure these weaknesses? The common sentiment of the 
country can hardly be expected to do it. That sentiment can not 
be united, it does not perceive the difficulties, and it hardly has the 
means. The constituencies of the different institutions ought to 
force it but such constituencies are accustomed to follow leaders. 
It is rather too much to expect of the lay boards of trustees. They 
expect the educational administrations to deal with such matters. 
It is up to the presidents. They have the power to do it if it can 
be done at all. Under our university system, the responsibility and 
the right to lead are theirs. It is a matter of their standards, 
strength, and courage. 

If these structural weaknesses in American universities are cured 
it will be upon the initiative and under the leadership of their 
presidents. The office of president, as we know its attributes, is 
peculiar to American universities; like the lay board of trustees, 
it is unknown in other universities. It has grown out of the very 



i55 

necessities of our half popular and half professional, half lay and 
half scholastic scheme of university government. It is not only 
the executive force, it is also the conserving, organizing, directive 
force in administration. It is yet more than that : it is the power 
that gathers and harmonizes the forces which enter into the evolu- 
tion of a great university, and it is the power which can enable 
education to resist the weaknesses and the vagaries inevitably asso- 
ciated with compounding millions of widely different people into 
a new world power. It is apparently the only power in the forces 
that are making our universities and in the plan of our university 
government that can do it. This is depreciating none of the other 
forces. Money, altruistic spirit, reverence for God, and love of 
learning, are great forces. A college or a department may be made 
great by a man who has the head, the training, and the heart of a 
scholar, and who is given opportunity and provided with means. 
But no university in America has ever developed strong colleges 
and departments, and brought each to support all the rest, and 
effected a comprehensive whole which has quickened the intellectual 
and moral life of the nation, without having had at least one great 
president and without having protected him from the vagaries and 
jealousies of individuals for a considerable time. And if this office 
is the power that has made many of our universities big and some 
of them great, we must look to it, and give it the men and the sup- 
port and the trend which will enable it to make more of them great, 
and such as are great greater still. 

Our theme has not been altogether agreeable. It is to be regret- 
ted that it has not been dealt with by one who could make its im- 
portance seem more urgent. The weaknesses of the universities 
are the weaknesses of the nation. We never needed great univer- 
sities more than we do now. It may be that we are entering as 
critical a period as we have ever had in the history of the Republic. 
All government is on trial. Democratic government can not escape 
further tests of its strength and its beneficence. The bigness of 
the nation and the heterogeneous character of the people ; the great 
business of developing and conserving our vast physical and 
political estates ; the care of all the wicked, the degenerate, 
and the unfortunate ; the indifference, or at least the helpless- 
ness, about choosing competent representative assemblies and 
the recklessness with which legislation is matured; and the 
haste and gaiety with which millions, if not scores of millions, 
seem ready to cast away inbred religious beliefs of the nation and 



156 

the fundamental political principles of the government; ail point 
to a period hardly less critical than that period which went just 
before the making of the Constitution and that other which went 
just before the Civil War. Of course we are all optimists, but 
we are barred from being very stupid optimists ; we are not ignor- 
ant of the low points as well as the high points of human nature, 
and we have often seen the slants and curves and vacant spaces on 
the great diagram of human history. 

How the races troop over the stage in endless procession ! 
Persian and Arab and Greek and Hun and Roman and Saxon 
Master the world in turn and then disappear in the darkness. 

We think we know that this nation will endure; the nations 
that have perished have neither had our freedom nor been guided 
by our lights. But we know too, or ought to know, that the nation 
will endure only by the continuing triumph of the forces of in- 
telligence and righteousness over the forces of ignorance and vice; 
only by men and parties letting go of issues that are obsolete and 
burying prejudices that are outworn, and by making moral, scien- 
tific, patriotic alinement upon the vital questions of a new situation 
and a new day. It will have to come through the consolidation of 
the best thinking and the great-heartedness of the schools and the 
churches. In very large measure it will have to come through the 
doings and the teachings of universities that grow out of the 
genius of the country and are able to lead it; universities that are 
light-hearted, confident, sincere ; that are sane enough to keep in 
the middle of the road, scientific enough to unlock new truth, and 
forceful enough to repel error ; that are at once unselfish, tolerant, 
scholarly, democratic, patriotic, and fearless American universities. 



INTRODUCTION TO EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 

OF NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION 
DEPARTMENT 



INTRODUCTION TO EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

The Education Department is the instrumentality by which the 
State of New York now carries on all its innumerable activities 
for the schooling of its children and the culture of its people. Of 
course the organizations and agencies voluntarily created by small 
groups of people and having educational ends in view, can hardly 
be numbered, and of course the State encourages all of these to 
act upon their own ideas and pursue their own ends, for it knows 
very well that its primacy and prestige are not only expressed 
by what the State government does, but are dependent upon 
the political independence, the moral and sociological ideals, 
and the educational energy in the body of people. Even these 
organizations, notwithstanding their freedom to go and come as 
they will, interlace with the affairs of the Education Department, 
for if they are corporations they are chartered by it; if what they 
do has any bearing upon admissions to the professions they must 
respond to the requirements of the laws which it administers; and, 
whatever their special purpose, they are glad to share in the bene- 
factions apportioned by the State, or in the other advantages which 
necessarily grow out of the cooperation of kindred spirits actuated 
by common aims. This bare allusion to this boundless field is made 
to suggest at the outset how inadequate an official report, which 
must needs deal with mere facts of official routine, must be to 
convey a just conception of the operations of the New York State 
Education Department. It is not too much to say that the major 
part of its doings can not be set down in figures or expressed upon 
a printed page. Yet what the State provides and directs, the 
vitality of the organization through which it executes, and the 
happenings of the succeeding years in its official life, which must 
be treated in the official reports, comprise the bone and sinew if not 
the blood and brains of what New York does for the common 
culture. 

The Education Department is a growth. Its organic life began 
in the year 1784 "at the first session after the peace" when the 
Legislature created the University of the State of New York. Its 
advance has not been without many conflicts and some serious blows, 
but it has been as steady, as aggressive, as broad-minded, and as 

iS9 



i6o 

self-confident as the State itself. But so far as we can see, the 
internecine conflicts at least ended with the Unification Act of 1904, 
and the noble concern of the people of the State in the matters com- 
mitted to the Department is exemplified in its steadily augmenting 
activities, and concretely expressed in the beautiful and monu- 
mental building that is almost ready for its exclusive use. 

The data in this report cover the school year terminating July 
31, 191 1, but it is customary in such documents to refer to unusual 
or important facts occurring up to the time of its presentation to 
the Legislature. 

This report is presented to the Legislature of 1912, and the Legis- 
lature of 1912 marks the passage of an even hundred years since 
the Legislature passed an act creating a State officer to be known 
as the State Superintendent of Common Schools. No such step 
had been taken before by any state ; nor was a similar step taken by 
any other state for many years thereafter. In 1784 New York had 
created The University of the State of Nezv York under the direc- 
tion of the Board of Regents, but this had particular reference to 
the encouragement of colleges and academies. If there was any 
thought that the operations of "The U/niversity- " would extend to 
the upbuilding of a system of common elementary schools, it was 
not disclosed and certainly it was not realized. In 1795 the Legis- 
lature had made an appropriation for the encouragement of ele- 
mentary and common schools, but it was only temporary if not 
fitful legislation; it evidenced the purpose of the State but it also 
evidenced the fact that the State was not yet quite able to see how 
to realize its purpose in a substantial and enduring way. In 1802 
Governor George Clinton in his message to the Legislature said: 
" The system of common schools having been discontinued and the 
advantages to morals, liberty and good government arising from 
the general diffusion of knowledge being universally admitted, per- 
mit me to recommend this object to your deliberate attention. The 
failure of one experiment for the attainment of an important object 
ought not to discourage other attempts." The " failure " to which 
the heroic old Governor alluded is in danger of being interpreted 
too broadly. He did not mean that the little local schools had all 
been closed up, but that the effort to renew the State appropriation 
for elementary schools which had been made in 1795 and expired 
in 1800 had failed, and that therefore the creation upon a perma- 
nent basis of a State system of schools had failed. The fact is that 
perhaps for reasons that appear way back in her early history, New 



i6i 

York was thinking of a State system of schools when other states 
were only thinking about isolated schools ; indeed, when other states 
were assuming that it would be an imperious and sad limitation 
upon liberty and democracy if any individual school lost any of its 
individuality in a system of schools, even though such a system was 
vital to its efficiency if not to its existence, to its power if not to 
its life. 

.Governor Clinton recurred to the matter in 1803 an d again in 
1804. In 1805 Governor Morgan Lewis made it the subject of 
a special and comprehensive message to the Legislature. He pre- 
sented a broad scheme to be carried out by the Regents of 
the University, but the long to be continued opposition to the 
subordination of the elementary schools to the University had al- 
ready begun and the Governor's scheme entirely failed except that 
it did result in the establishment of a permanent common school 
fund in 1805, and that, as often happens, led to something even 
better in 1812. The something better was the creation of the office 
of Superintendent of Common Schools, and happily Gideon Haw- 
ley was chosen to fill it. 

So this is a centennial Legislature so far as education is con- 
cerned. It is a happy and somewhat interesting coincidence that 
this year, which marks the centennial of the first move by any 
Legislature in an American state to set up a state organization 
whose business it should be to bind the schools into an edu- 
cational system and to extend that system until it should include 
every home and make use of every educational resource to promote 
the common culture, should be itself made noteworthy by the same 
state dedicating, for the first time in America, to the exclusive use 
of its educational work, a building of such spaciousness and beauty 
as to rival all of the state capitols of the nation. But it is as fitting 
and significant as it is pleasing and interesting. 

The body of this report for the school year ending July 31, 191 1 
will be made up of rather comprehensive discussions of the three 
great subdivisions of our work, namely, elementary, secondary, and 
higher, by the three Assistant Commissioners of Education respect- 
ively, who have the more immediate supervision thereof, and of 
more exact statements covering the operations of ten of the four- 
teen divisions of the Department prepared respectively by the 
Chiefs of those divisions. Perhaps in fairness to these officers it 
should be said that the Commissioner of Education, or the editor 
working under his direction, has felt free to eliminate some matter 



1 62 

prepared by them in order to prevent repetitions and make the 
whole more harmonious, and also to make other minor modifica- 
tions, but the work of preparation has in the main been theirs. 
This is something of a departure from the plan followed in pre- 
vious years. 

Some general summaries may be assembled here for the con- 
venience of the reader. 

STATE APPROPRIATIONS 

Balance of appropriations October i, 1910 $382 647 68 

Appropriations in fiscal year .* 7 051 074 51 

Total available funds 7 433 722 19 

Expenditures 7 117 988 01 

Balance October 1, 191 1 $315 734 18 

In the year the Department received ,from various outside 
sources fees amounting to $67,017.78 and paid the same into the 
State treasury. 

Approximately 80 per cent of the moneys appropriated by the 
State to education are apportioned under the law to local schools 
and the training of teachers therefor; about 11 per cent of the 
appropriations went to support what may be called " outside " 
activities of the Department, such as normal schools, Indian 
schools, institutes, school commissioners, etc. ; and about 9 per 
cent went to the support of the " inside " work of the Department, 
such as salaries, traveling, furniture, postage, express, printing 
etc. In the year an extraordinary appropriation of $35,000 was 
made to cover rents, moving charges and the like, in consequence 
of the fire in the Capitol. Appropriations made for the Education 
Building or for the restoration of the State Library do not enter 
into these statements. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

There are 11,777 school districts and 12,094 public schoolhouses 
in the State. The total attendance of pupils between five and 
eighteen years of age was 1,421,843. The number over eighteen 
years old was 14,737. Tne number of certificated teachers em- 
ployed for 160 days or more was 43, ll 7- Tne number of teach- 
ers employed for some portion of the year was 45,366, of whom 



163 

5086 were men and 40,280 were women. The number of men is 
70 less and of women 575 more than in the preceding year. The 
total amount expended for teachers' wages was $36,169,810.65. The 
average annual salary of teachers was $838.88. There was ex- 
pended for buildings, sites, repairs, furniture etc. $6,686,445.38; 
for apparatus $115,310.86; for libraries $249,780.84; for other in- 
cidental expens'es $10,016,791.59. The total sum raised by tax and 
expended for schools was $53,238,139.32. 

OTHER THAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The attendance upon the academies reporting to the Department 
was 47,480, upon normal schools 6965, upon teachers training 
classes and schools 3888, upon universities, colleges and profes- 
sional schools 36,215, upon Indian schools 851, upon evening 
schools, 146,422, and upon private schools of all grades according 
to our best estimates 225,000. 

INVESTMENTS IN SCHOOLS 

The total investment of the State of New York in school prop- 
erty is $363,790,388, of which $171,155,030 is in elementary school 
property, $30,232,576 in high school property, $25,976,465 in acad- 
emy property, and $127,147,557 is in the property of universities, 
colleges and professional schools. 

The total expenditures in the school year 1910-11 for ele- 
mentary schools was $45,190,382.50, for high schools $8,751,215.- 
53, for academies $4,119,024.29, for universities, colleges and pro- 
fessional schools $16,396,373.64, for special higher institutions 
$373,852.65, for normal schools $457,371.57, for training classes 
and schools $392,195.25, for Indian schools $17,138.74, for evening 
schools $929,377.50, and for trade and vocational schools $236,- 
780.64. The grand total of money paid by the people of the 
State for schools in the year was $76,863,712.11. 

The colleges of the State, by which is meant not only the sep- 
arate institutions but those which are associated together in uni- 
versities, and also the professional and technical schools above 
the secondary grade, move forward in numbers and means at 
least. Last year these institutions had 4663 teachers and 36,215 
students The expenditures for higher education during the year 
were $16,395,373.64 The total value of collegiate property is 
$135,808,677.81 and the net assets $127,147,557.43. In the seven 
years since educational unification the college faculties increased 
6 



164 

25 per cent, the students 23.6 per cent, the expenditures increased 
32.9 per cent, the investments 46 per cent and the net holdings 
49.7 per cent. This rapid evolution is mainly due to the extension 
of scientific applications to industrial operations. The reactive 
influence of this upon the quality of American scholarship is a 
mooted question. There is apparently not much occasion for 
anxiety about that because scholarship that is real will live and 
expand and if anything is entitled to the benefit of scientific learn- 
ing it is industry. It may, however, be observed that there is 
some ground for questioning whether the overwhelming motive in 
American universities is not numbers and wealth rather than 
scholarship, bigness rather than greatness, influence rather than 
helpfulness to all. In any event, whether there is necessity for the 
reflection or not, it is worth thinking about. 

The enormous amount of details handled by the Department may 
be somewhat indicated by the fact that last year more than half a 
million answer papers were rated in examinations and that 49,030 
certificates were issued. But this signifies only one phase of one 
division of our work. The examination papers have to be pre- 
pared to accord with and stimulate the work in the schools ; the 
examinations have to be supervised; the correspondence associated 
with the examinations is vast and must of necessity be painstaking 
and exact. It is small wonder that some candidates are aggrieved, 
yet on the whole the matter runs with little difficulty; indeed with 
much less difficulty than before the creation of the State Examina- 
tions Board composed of leading teachers in the elementary, second- 
ary and advanced schools. And it distinguishes and uplifts New 
York education in the opinion of the country. . It supplies the basis 
of preparedness for professional study and creates a firmer basis of 
professional scholarship and competency than obtains in any other 
state. 

The vast work carried on by the Department in general will be 
suggested in the succeeding pages by the Assistant Commissioners, 
the Chiefs of the working divisions, and the Directors of the Lib- 
rary and the Museum. This year they have been asked to set forth 
their work under their own names. One who will go over these 
pages can not fail to be impressed with the responsibilities of the 
Education Department. In ordinary fairness it must be said that 
these continually multiplying responsibilities have in all recent years 
had to be met under most disadvantageous circumstances and that 
the disadvantages were much aggravated by the fire in the Capitol 
on the 29th of March. 



i65 

Our divisions of work have been so scattered about the city and 
so hampered by inconveniences of living and work as to make unity 
and efficiency extremely difficult. In my judgment the officers and 
employees of the Department are entitled to commendation for 
having held on to and held up standards as well as they have. And 
now we look forward with eager anticipation to being reunited and 
made comfortable in the new Education Building, for which we 
have to thank the government of the State, and in which we hope 
to render to the people of New York a more excellent educational 
service than they have ever had. 






THE STORY OF THE ERECTION OF THE 
EDUCATION BUILDING 



THE STORY OF THE ERECTION OF THE EDUCATION 

BUILDING 1 

The effort for the erection of the State Education Building had 
one controlling motive, and that was to consolidate and gain added 
support and keener energy for the educational activities of the State. 
It was the direct outgrowth of the unification of the two State edu- 
cation departments — the Regents of the University of the State of 
New York, created by the Legislature at the " first session after the 
peace'' in 1784, to charter and supervise the higher institutions, and 
the Department of Public Instruction, going back to the first act of 
any American state creating a state system of common schools and 
a state department to supervise them, which was in 18 12. This 
unification was provided for by law in 1904. It, or something else 
very decisive, was made necessary by the clashing between the two 
departments which had shown itself on many occasions and in the 
preceding decade had become so acute that the people and the Legis- 
lature felt it to be intolerable. The Unification Act was not very 
well suited to its purposes ; there was opportunity enough for further 
trouble in operating it ; indeed, it was far from acceptable to all and 
further trouble seemed inevitable. The Regents and the Commis- 
sioner of Education had, however, by a rational and conciliatory 
course managed to realize the wishes of the people and to bind 
together completely and actually harmonize the feelings of the 
educational forces of the State. 

It was felt that there ought to be a monument to this epochal ac- 
complishment and that it ought to be in a form which would ex- 
press the satisfaction of the State at the actual accomplishment of 
the educational unification which many had sought so long. It was 
also felt that there should be some graphic expression which would 
vividly portray to all the people of the State and to the whole world, 
the interest which New York has in both popular and higher educa- 
tion. It seemed fit that the commonwealth which had always stood 
for the most centralized and efficient support of public education ; in 
which the first common school was established ; which was the first 



1 Special theme, written by the Commissioner of Education for the Eighth 
Annual Report of the State Education Department (1912). 

169 



170 

to create a state board to charter and supervise colleges and acad- 
emies; the first to appropriate money to common schools and to 
establish a permanent common school fund ; the first to create the 
office of State Superintendent of Common Schools and a State De- 
partment of Public Instruction; and the first to unify all its muni- 
ficent and innumerable educational activities under one administra- 
tion, should be the first to erect a separate building which should 
stand exclusively and aggressively for its concern about the intel- 
ligence and the character of all its people. And withal it seemed im- 
portant to do whatever might be done to commit all future Governors 
and Legislatures to still greater provision and yet more earnest en- 
deavor for the widest possible diffusion of all learning. 

The obvious need would be met and the natural impulses of all 
this would be realized in a beautiful and impressive building more 
completely than in any other way. But the movement for a building 
had other than sentimental or philosophical support. There were 
arguments enough for it which would appeal to the press and which 
the Governor and the legislative committees would not want to 
ignore. The Education Department was quartered in a half dozen 
places in the Capitol and in other buildings in the city of Albany. 
Other departments as well as the Education Department were need- 
ing more room, and would be glad to have the Education Depart- 
ment move out. Other departments with superior political influence 
or readier access to the seat of power had often induced the Trus- 
tees of Public Buildings to take one room after another from the 
Education Department for their accommodation. The Education 
Department was thus operating at great inconvenience and disad- 
vantage. Unity and discipline and efficiency were almost impossible. 
Nor was that the worst. Its priceless accumulations of book's and his- 
torical manuscripts could not be properly cared for and were actually 
in danger from fire. Of course they were largely housed in a " fire- 
proof building " and there was no thought of such a conflagration 
as has since visited them, but the danger from fire to the contents of 
single rooms was not only actual but was seriously asserted. Even 
more; the danger extended to human life. The Department had 
many employees occupying tower rooms, far from the ground, who 
might be shut off from escape in case of fire. And aside from this 
menace, employees were obliged to occupy unhygienic quarters and 
the Department development was being arrested. Thus the concrete 
and practical reasons for a building supplemented the more senti- 
mental ones, and together they could not fail to make the path of 
duty and good policy clear enough to the Commissioner of Educa- 



I 7 I 

tion who was under the law the executive head of the Education 
Department and the custodian of its collections. 

The first official step looking to the erection of the Education 
Building was taken by the Commissioner of Education on January 
18, 1905, in the following statement to the Board of Regents : 

Separate Building for Education Department 

The Education Department has nearly, or quite, three hundred 
employees in its service. The rooms provided for the Department 
are wholly inadequate to the convenience or efficiency of this large 
force. Several rooms are improperly congested and several lack 
in conveniences that are imperative. A considerable number of our 
employees are in tower rooms, from which escape would be very 
difficult, if not impossible, in case of Hre. The whole Capitol is 
congested in some measure and undoubtedly all its occupants would 
be desirous of having the Education Department provided for 
otherwise, in order to enlarge accommodations for those who would 
remain. The State Library is in imperative need of more room — 
. indeed, of much more room. Its growth must be arrested unless 
more adequate provision is made for it at an early date. 

More than this, it may be said that the erection of a building 
by the State, which should be wholly given to the uses of the Edu- 
cation Department, including the Library and the State Museum, 
would be a very decided advantage to all of the educational activi- 
ties of the State. It would distinctly represent the interests of the 
State in education. It would uplift and dignify the importance of 
the educational work of the State in the minds of the. masses. The 
matter has been discussed for several years and it seems to be very 
commonly accepted that such a building should be provided. Gov- 
ernor Higgins in his recent annual message to the Legislature 
refers to the proposition and not unfavorably. 

As to just what the initiatory steps ought to be, should only be 
determined after serious discussion, but it seems to me clear that 
we should present the matter in all seriousness to the Legislature 
now in session. It might be well to go no further this year than to 
ask the State to commit itself to the proposition and take measures 
for acquiring a suitable site near the Capitol and for causing the 
State Architect to prepare the necessary plans and secure tenders 
with proper security for the completion of the structure, and make 
report to the next Legislature. Possibly it might be well to advise 
the creation of a special commission, consisting of prominent State 
officials, to attend to the matter. I am sure, however, that if it were 
committed to the present Superintendent of Buildings, it would be 
well managed. 

I submit the whole matter to your consideration, with the recom- 
mendation that the committee on legislation be directed to take 
steps for carrying the suggestion into effect. 



172 

Of course this communication to the Regents was gratifying 
to them. The matter had been many times spoken of and they 
fully realized the importance of it. Possibly it had been talked 
of so many times without result that they had little confidence 
that the thought could be realized. They well knew that there 
would be some very natural opposition throughout the State to 
starting another large State building at Albany. Yet it was well 
agreed that the proposition was a sound one and the following 
resolution was unanimously adopted : 

Voted, That the recommendation of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation concerning a separate building for the Education Department 
be referred to the special committee on legislation together with the 
Commissioner with power to act upon their discretion in the matter. 

Nothing having resulted in the meantime, the Commissioner 
of Education recurred to the matter at a meeting of the Regents 
December 14, 1905, in the following statement: 

New Education Building 

In my opinion the Department will fall short of meeting its re- 
sponsibilities to the high trusts in its care unless it makes very 
earnest and formal representations to the Governor and the Legis- 
lature of the imperative need of larger provision for the State Li- 
brary, the State Museum and the working forces of the Department. 
The officers and employees of the Department, numbering almost 
three hundred persons, are in widely separated rooms on five floors 
of the Capitol and also in the old State House and the Geological 
and Agricultural Hall. We are also renting an old malthouse for 
storage purposes. This makes it difficult to create unity and en- 
force discipline. But perhaps worse than this, the accommodations 
in many cases were never intended for their present uses and are 
often not only unsuitable because in out of the way places and lack- 
ing conveniences and desirable lighting for office work, but are 
unsanitary and dangerous in case of lire. Beyond this, the State 
Library is already being arrested in its development by lack of space 
for its constant accumulations, and its invaluable collections of his- 
toric documents and relics are not only in need of better accom- 
modations which will enable them to be better kept and at the same 
time more accessible to students, but they are not growing as they 
would if there were enlarged space and better accommodations for 
them. Beyond the immediate and pressing needs of the situation 
is the indubitable fact that if the State will signalize the adminis- 
trative unification of its educational machinery, which in extent and 
articulated relations and potential possibilities is exceedingly con- 
spicuous in the country, by a separate building which will make 
suitable provision for its educational work and stand, in the popular 
mind, for the great interest of the State in intellectual activities and 



*7Z 

moral progress, it will take a great step not yet taken by any other 
state and one even more consequential and beneficent than many of 
the generation which does it are likely to realize. 

I am not without very confident thought that appropriate repre- 
sentations to the proper authorities will result in desirable action, 
but whether it does or not, I entertain no doubt of our duty in the 
premises and I trust we shall no longer defer taking a definite and 
decisive attitude in relation to this all-important matter. 

Concerning this the Board, on motion of Regent Philbin, 
passed the following: 

Voted, That in the judgment of the Board of Regents, the needs 
of the Education Department and particularly of the State Library 
and State Museum for better accommodations are very serious. 
The employees of the Department are so widely separated as to 
make desirable unity very difficult of attainment, and in many cases 
rooms are being used which are lacking in suitable conveniences if 
not in proper safeguards against ill-health and accident. The 
growth of the State Library is being arrested for lack of room and 
the historic collections of the Library are not as well accommodated 
or made as serviceable to students as they clearly should be. This 
is a hindrance to the uniform development of the State which it 
can not afford and to which the people are opposed. The Board of 
Regents also represents to the responsible authorities the very great 
desirability of housing all of the interests in charge of the Educa- 
tion Department in a separate and distinctive building, which will 
not only promote administrative efficiency but stand in the popular 
mind for the interest, wisdom and aggressiveness of the State con- 
cerning intellectual and moral advancement, and that a committee 
be appointed to take such steps as may be advisable to procure the 
much needed separate building for the purposes of all branches of 
the Education Department. 

The committee appointed pursuant to the foregoing vote con- 
sisted of Regents Sexton, Lauterbach and Francis. 

The Commissioner of Education often conferred with Governor 
Higgins about the proposition and was always assured that it 
had -the general sympathy of the Governor, although he ex- 
pressed some misgivings as to how the expense of such an 
important undertaking could be met from ordinary revenues, 
and also some apprehension about the possibility of carrying 
out such a project without a scandal, from which he fondly hoped 
that his administration might be free. 

Early in the session of the Legislature of 1906 the Commis- 
sioner of Education asked Senator John Raines, President of 
the Senate, with whom he had been long and agreeably ac- 
quainted, to give the matter his very serious attention, with the 



*74 

result that it was 'fully discussed between them, and Senator 
Raines agreed to give the proposition his best support. His 
support was extremely meaningful. He opened the campaign 
by introducing in the Senate on February 14, 1906, the following 
preamble and resolution which were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, it has for some years been commonly alleged that the 
Capitol' affords very inadequate and unsuitable working room for 
the constantly multiplying departments of the State government; 
that rooms are too much congested; that the clerical force often 
lacks necessary conveniences and, in many instances, is quartered 
in tower rooms and ouf of the way places never intended for clerical 
work, and that, notwithstanding this, space which is very much 
needed for the steadily expanding work can not be had, and 

Whereas, the State Museum with its valuable historic and scien- 
tific collections is housed in antiquated and inconvenient buildings 
and is in constant danger of destruction by fire, and 

Whereas, the State Board of Regents has recently certified to the 
Governor and the Legislature that for lack of room the books, his- 
torical documents and relics of the State Library can not be prop- 
erly cared for, and that the Library, which is clearly the foremost 
state library in the United States, is being arrested in its growth 
and permanently injured for lack of proper accommodations; 
therefore 

Resolved, that the finance committee of the Senate be requested 
to inquire into said matters and report 'the facts relating thereto 
with such recommendations and bill as the committee shall think 
advisable. 

On the 29th of March Senator Raines introduced the following 
bill, prepared by the Commissioner of Education : 

AN ACT 

Directing the acquisition of a site for and the erection of a State 
Education Building, providing for the State Library and the 
State Museum, and making an appropriation therefor. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

Section 1 The Trustees of Public Buildings are hereby directed 
and empowered to determine upon a suitable site near the Capitol 
for a building for the use of the State Education Department, in- 
cluding the State Library and the State Museum of Natural History, 
and to acquire the same either by condemnation under the power 
of eminent domain through proceedings instituted by the Attorney 
General, or by negotiation and agreement with the present owner 
or owners as to the just valuation thereof, and also to proceed to the 
erection of a suitable building thereori for the purposes provided 
herein. 



175 

§ 2 The State Architect shall prepare plans, drawings and speci- 
fications for a building which shall be of stone and steel construc- 
tion and fireproof throughout, and which shall provide accommoda- 
tions for the officers and employees of the Education Department, 
with suitable accommodations for the safe and proper care for the 
collections of every description belonging to the State Library and 
the State Museum and shall reasonably anticipate the growth of 
such collections. Such plans shall be so arranged as to permit of 
the future extension of the library stacks and of the museum spaces 
without other changes in said building. Suitable rooms for the 
Board of Regents and for the occasional meeting of educational, 
literary, historical and scientific assemblages shall be included, and 
all proper and reasonable conveniences, with ample storage accom- 
modations, shall be provided. Such plans and specifications shall 
be approved by the Trustees of Public Buildings, the Board of 
Regents of the University of the State of New York, and the Com- 
missioner of Education. 

§ 3 When such plans and specifications have been made and 
approved as herein provided, the Trustees of Public Buildings shall 
advertise in not less than five nor more than ten daily newspapers 
of the State for tenders from contractors and builders setting forth 
the terms upon which they will undertake the erection of said build- 
ing according to said plans and specifications. Said tenders shall 
be accompanied by such guaranty bonds or cash deposits as shall be 
required by said Trustees of Public Buildings and shall satisfy said 
trustees that the person, firm, or corporation proposing to erect the 
whole or some part of said building will enter into contract and 
complete the work proposed to be done according to the terms of 
the propositions presented. Said trustees may, in their discretion, 
call for tenders upon the erection of the whole of said building by 
one contracting party, or for the performance of different parts of 
the work by different parties, or for both of such plans of procedure. 

§ 4 If said Trustees of Public Buildings shall obtain satisfactory 
tenders proposing to erect and complete said building before July i, 
1909, for a sum not exceeding three millions, five hundred thousand 
dollars, including the cost of the site, said trustees are authorized 
and empowered to enter into contract for the performance of said 
work with the party or parties who, being in the judgment of said 
trustees well capable of performing the work, shall propose the 
terms which are the most advantageous to the State. If said trus- 
tees shall receive no satisfactory tender for the completion of the 
work, including the purchase of site, for a sum not exceeding three 
millions, five hundred thousand dollars^ said trustees shall enter 
into no contract for the erection of the building and shall proceed 
no further than the acquisition of a site therefor until the facts shall 
have been reported to and acted upon by the Legislature. 

§ 5 Upon the completion of said Education Building, the Educa- 
tion Department, including the State Library and the State Museum, 
shall occupy the same and shall forthwith vacate all rooms occupied 
by said Department in the Capitol, in the old State House, in the 



176 

Geological and Agricultural Hall, and in any building or buildings 
rented for storage or other purposes. 

§ 6 The sum of four hundred thousand dollars is hereby appro- 
priated out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropria- 
ted, for the purchase of a site for said Education Building and for 
any expenses incidental thereto, and also for the services of any 
designers or draughtsmen who may be specially employed by the 
State Architect for this work with the approval of the Governor, 
or for any other expense approved by the Governor. The money 
shall be paid by the Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller 
and after the certificate of approval by the Governor. 

§ 7 This act shall take effect immediately. 

As time advanced, Senator Raines became enthusiastic over 
the proposition and very proud of his sponsorship for it. His 
great influence, added to the real importance of the project, se- 
cured for it the very thorough consideration of the Senate finance 
committee. All of the members became interested in it. Poli- 
tics was happily abjured. No substantial opposition developed. 
It was generally agreed that something must be done, and the 
committee gave a long afternoon to the perfection of a bill that 
would gain the best ends. At one time it was proposed to pro- 
vide quarters for the Court of Appeals in the new building, but 
Senator Thomas F. Grady, leader of the minority in the Senate, 
a long and valued friend of the Commissioner of Education, 
stoutly insisted that the building should stand for popular edu- 
cation and nothing else, and that view was generally taken. The 
long and practical experience of the members of the committee 
resulted in a number of marked improvements to the bill that 
was before them. Going over the measure sentence by sentence, 
they came to a unanimous and cordial approval of it in the form 
in which it finally became a law. They perfected the scheme for 
securing the most resultful architectural competition and, rather 
singularly, they enlarged the authorized cost of the structure. 
The original bill provided $3,500,000 inclusive of the site, and 
the committee provided $3,500,000 exclusive of the site. It was 
supposed that the site would cost in the neighborhood of 
$500,000. Whether this change in the amount provided for in 
the bill was intentional or inadvertent is not certain, but in any 
event it was one about which the Education Department would 
not be inconsolable. 

On the 20th of April the finance committee made the following 
report to the Senate in response to the resolution of February 
14th: 



177 

STATE EDUCATION BUILDING 

STATE OF NEW YORK 
ROOM OF THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE 

April 20, 1006 
To the Senate: 

The finance committee has given the matter careful inquiry and 
consideration, and submits the following facts : 

The Education Department has general supervision of all the 
schools of the State, and also of the State Library and State 
Museum. It has two hundred and eighty-five employees. It occu- 
pies widely scattered rooms upon five different floors of the Capitol, 
in the old State Hall, in the Geological and Agricultural building 
on State street, and it rents for storage purposes an unsuitable 
structure formerly used as a malthouse. 

Perhaps the most urgent demands are on the part of the State 
Library. 

STATE LIBRARY 

In the size and richness of its collection the New York State 
Library ranks fifth among the libraries of America, the first four 
being the Library of Congress, the New York Public, the Boston 
Public, and the Harvard University libraries, in the order named. 
It is easily first among the state libraries of this country. In physi- 
cal equipment and facilities for handling its collection it holds an 
unenviable place near the bottom of the list. 

The library now contains 568,317 volumes (including duplicates), 
56,076 pictures, 432,433 pamphlets and 265,000 manuscripts. 

These manuscripts include public records obtained by gift, pur- 
chase, and transfer from the Secretary of State, Comptroller, 
Senate and Assembly clerks and other state officers under concur- 
rent resolution of the Legislature of December 15, 1847; Laws of 
1859, chapter 321; Laws of 1881, chapter 120; and Laws of 1892, 
chapter 378, sections 16 and 20. They include all that has been 
preserved of the — 

Papers of the administration of the Director General and Council 
of the Dutch West India Company, 1630-64. 

Executive and legislative papers, other than land papers, of the 
period of English colonial administration, 1664-1775. 

Transcripts from foreign archives relating to the colonial history 
of the State, 1611-1782. 

Accounts of the Colony and State, 1665- 1785. 

Marriage bonds given in return for marriage licenses issued by 
the secretary of the province, 1752-84. 

Papers laid before the Provincial Congress and Committee of 
Safety, with their minutes and correspondence, 1775-78. 

Files of the Council of Appointment, 1778- 1822. 

Legislative papers from the organization of the State govern- 
ment in 1777 to date. 

State census returns, 1801-1892. 



i 7 8 

Correspondence of Sir William Johnson, Sir John Johnson and 
Colonel Guy Johnson, 1738-90. 

Papers of Governor George Clinton, 1763- 1844. 

Papers of Governor D. D. Tompkins, 1792- 1847. 

In addition to these are 55,000 miscellaneous legal and private 
papers relating to Vermont, known as the Henry Stevens papers, 
1 750- 1 850; a complete collection of autographs of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence; the first draft of Washington's Fare- 
well Address ; the original of his Opinion of his General Officers ; 
the original draft of the first Emancipation Proclamation, Septem- 
ber 22, 1862; and other documents not properly classed as public 
records of the State. 

All these priceless manuscripts are crowded into a narrow, un- 
ventilated storeroom which was originally the top part of a blind 
corridor 30 feet high. For the most part they are packed in wooden 
cabinets and on wooden shelves. 

The condition of the manuscript division is typical of the condi- 
tions all over the Library. Everywhere books are crowded into 
badly ventilated, makeshift rooms which are hot in summer and cold 
in winter. 

The law library is one of the largest common and statute law 
collections in the world. Among its special features are : 

Practically complete collections of the statute law and reports of 
the courts of the United States and of Great Britain and her 
colonies. 

Laws and reports of the countries of continental Europe, includ- 
ing France, Germany, Russia, Belgium and Holland, and the codes 
of Spain and the South American republics. 

Journals and documents of legislative bodies in the United States 
and Great Britain. 

Constitutional conventions, debates, proceedings, and journals, 
complete for New York and practically so for the other states. 

Trials, collected and individual ; one of the largest known collec- 
tions, numbering over 5000 trials. 

New York cases and briefs of counsel, indexed on cards, Court 
of Appeals, 1847-date (23,456 cases) ; Supreme Court, 1874-date 
(65,364 cases), the only complete sets in existence; miscellaneous 
courts, 1892-date (4575 cases). 

Miscellaneous opinions of New York Supreme Court, 1874-date. 

This very important collection has become badly congested 
through its own growth- and by crowding from other divisions of 
the Library. 

The medical library, though it has its headquarters in one of the 
rooms on the third floor, is really scattered all over the Library. 
While the Legislature is in session many of its books are not avail- 
able because shelved in rooms occupied by legislative committees. 

The Library now occupies over fifty rooms on the third, fourth, 
fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the western end of the Capitol, the 
last two floors having been made out of what was originally the 
attic. It also occupies storage space on the first floor and in the 



179 

attic over the Assembly chamber, and in an outside leased building 
in which are about 200,000 volumes of duplicates and less used 
books, nailed up in boxes and wholly inaccessible. This leased 
building, an old malthouse several blocks distant from the Capitol, 
is without heat, light or fire protection. If its contents were where 
they could be properly shelved and listed, the Library could be 
greatly enriched by the sale and exchange of duplicates. 

In general, the present quarters were never adapted to library 
purposes, are inconvenient, poorly ventilated and crowded with 
temporary shelving of all sorts. The original stories of the building 
have each been divided into three or four mezzanine floors to secure 
shelf capacity. Classes and subclasses of books have to be sepa- 
rated, and even volumes of the same series are frequently shelved on 
different floors and at different ends of the building. In many 
places books stand two and three rows deep on the shelves, and 
large folios are shelved in accessible places, to the injury of 
valuable files. Those next to the roof are often injured by rain 
leaking through and tin pans are scattered around to catch the 
drip and save the books, maps etc. as much as possible. The glass 
roofs make the heat in these upper floors unbearable in summer, 
and destructive to their contents. The pine shelving in various 
parts of the Library, with the miles of electric wiring, are a con- 
stant menace. The constant shifting of books, made necessary by 
the crowding, is expensive. The card catalog is two floors by 
elevator from the cataloging department. Because of all this con- 
fusion and crowding there is danger to the Library collections, 
slow and inadequate service to the public, loss of time and oppor- 
tunity to the student, and greatly increased' cost of administration. 
There is no opportunity to display the resources of the Library 
and it is thus deprived of the most natural means of promoting its 
use and encouraging its support. These conditions being widely 
known the flow of valuable gifts to the Library is checked, and one 
of its greatest sources of enrichment seriously impaired. 

The main entrance to the Library leads directly into the reference 
room, which should be a place for quiet study. The conversation 
of guides and visitors, the rattling of elevator doors and the tramp- 
ing of feet on the tile floors make quiet impossible. There should 
be a much larger collection of reference books on open shelves in 
this room, but lack of shelf room makes this also impossible. 

From an administrative point of view, the New York State 
(Library is an expensive aggregation of temporary expedients. 

Founded in 181 8, the Library began its career with 656 volumes. 
The collection is now sixteen times as large as it was in 1850, and 
has doubled in size in the last twelve years. The card catalog and 
most important indexes now contain a million and a half cards. The 
annual increase is from 20,000 to 30,000 volumes ; 30,000 to 40,000 
pamphlets; 7000 pictures, and 80,000 to 100,000 cards. A mile of 
linear shelving is needed for the additions each year. This start- 
ling statement will be found sufficiently conservative when it is 



i8o 

considered that art books, bound newspapers, books for the blind, 
etc., often occupy the space of eight or ten ordinary octavo volumes. 
Considering its present needs and those of only the next ten or 
fifteen years, the Library should have, besides administrative rooms 
and adequate quarters for its manuscript collections, etc., capacity 
for 1,000,000 volumes. The new building, moreover, should be so 
constructed that this capacity could be doubled after the lapse of 
about fifteen years, without altering or spoiling the general scheme. 

MENACE TO THE CAPITOL 

The immense amount of wooden shelving, wooden galleries, docu- 
ments, books and other inflammable material occupying the whole 
west side of the Capitol is a constant menace from fire, which if 
once started in these shafts and galleries would totally destroy a 
structure which has cost twenty-five million dollars. 

Scarcely less urgent than the needs of the State Library are 
those of the State Museum and the scientific departments of the 
State. 

NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 

The scientific collections of the State are priceless. They are 
the acquisitions of seventy years of official activity in New York 
State science, but under the conditions which now prevail and have 
existed for the past fifteen years the interested public is practically 
debarred of access to them. It is for the education of the New 
York public that these collections have been brought together and 
the existing situation deprives the people of a distinct educational 
right and advantage. Such collections can not remain stationary 
in volume. The influx of materials necessary to the progress of all 
branches of the scientific work, yearly and almost daily aggravates 
the problem of the disposition of these collections. Contrasted with 
the provision made by governments, states and municipalities else- 
where for the care of such public scientific collections, the present 
housing of this scientific property is not a credit to the people or 
the State of New York. 

The annual increase in these collections is from 25,000 to 30,000 
specimens. Instead of there being an increase of space for the 
accommodation of these additions, there has been during nearly 
twenty years a gradual diminution in the space available for their 
disposition. 

Fifty-one years ago the Geological Hall on State street was set 
aside for the reception of these collections and it was within a 
few years filled with well displayed collections occupying four 
floors and basement with the exception of three chambers set aside 
for the use of the Department of Agriculture. In 1882 the Legis- 
lature recognized the fact that these quarters had become over- 
crowded and insufficient for the display of the natural resources 
of the State and by statute the authorities of the State Museum 
were ordered to acquire rooms in the State Hall as it was assumed 
that those rooms would be vacated by the removal of the financial 



181 

offices to the Capitol. By 1886 the Museum had occupied three 
rooms in the basement, three rooms on the second floor formerly 
occupied by the Attorney General, the Canal Board and the Com- 
missioners of the Land Office, and five rooms on the third floor. 

However, to meet the exigencies of public business which have 
arisen during the last twenty years, these quarters have been again 
and again contracted in spite of the progress of scientific work. 
For ten years it has been necessary to recognize the fact that the 
Museum could not even keep its ancient hold upon the space 
formerly assigned to the scientific collections. Repeatedly to meet 
the demands of public business it has withdrawn from one room 
after another in the State Hall until at the present time it has left 
in that building only one basement room equipped with the ma- 
chinery and mechanical appliances of the Museum, and three rooms 
on the top floor used as offices. 

Until the present year, however, it has been possible to protect 
the collection rooms in the Geological Hall from encroachment, 
except so far as they have been in part required for our own offices ; 
but within the past three months it has been necessary to meet the 
irresistible demands for more office room by surrendering to the 
Department of Agriculture several thousand square feet of floor 
space in the Geological Hall, and, in so doing, compelled to displace 
and pack away out of sight some of the most attractive and in- 
structive parts of the Museum collections. 

The scientific collections are today scattered through various 
buildings, and their distribution may be briefly summarized as 
follows : 

(a) Geological Hall. Here are the offices of the State Botanist 
with the herbarium; of the State Entomologist with the collections 
of insects; of the Assistant State Geologist; the Mineralogist, and 
the Zoologist. These office quarters have unavoidably displaced 
some considerable part of the display collections, as the first two 
officials named were formerly located in the Capitol and the other 
offices, so far as they existed at all, were upon the first floor. Until 
within a few weeks the Museum occupied 22,000 square feet of 
floor space in this building, absurdly inadequate for both the offices 
and the collections of the department. This space has recently been 
taken away to make room for the Agricultural Department that its 
removal from the Capitol might make room for the Gas Commis- 
sion. In the basement and cellar are stored the collections which 
have won grand prizes and gold medals at the recent expositions at 
Buffalo and St Louis and also the entire collection of minerals. 

(b) State Hall. The offices of the Director, Geologist and 
Paleontologist and his staff are in this building, which also contains 
the most valuable part of the paleontologic collections of the 
Museum. These are stored in several thousand drawers and boxes. 
In the basement is the rock-cutting plant and the machine shop. 
Within the past three years three of the rooms formerly occupied 
have been surrendered to the Corporation Tax Bureau and one base- 
ment room to the State Engineer. 



1 82 

(c) Capitol. The corridors on the fourth floor at the western 
end and the landing of the western stairway contain series of cases 
filled with such parts of the Indian collections as can now be dis- 
played. Additional specimens pertaining to this collection are in 
the State Library arid many others are packed away in the hope of 
future opportunities for exhibition. 

(d) Storage House (McCredie Malthouse). In this building 
there are stored many hundreds of boxes and cases of scientific speci- 
mens of various kinds, some of which have not been opened in 
half a century; others containing the materials recently acquired, 
which, after being studied, have had to be put away. 

(e) Flint Granite Company, Cemetery station. Here are stored 
some very large slabs of fossils having a total weight of upward of 
twenty-five tons. 

These collections, now scattered through five buildings, are in 
very large measure of such quality that they can not be duplicated. 
They are in no small part unequaled. The New York State 
Museum is one of the oldest public scientific museums in America 
and it has the largest scientific collection belonging to any State 
in the Union. This historic record has given it a high repute 
throughout the world, but its invaluable scientific property must fail 
to serve the people and public education so long as it remains in its 
present deplorable condition. The financial value of these collec- 
tions and their worth to New York science are too great to excuse 
the existing situation. 

INSUFFICIENT WORK ROOM FOR DEPARTMENT FORCE 

The working force of the Education Department is so widely 
scattered as to> seriously interfere with department unity, discipline 
and efficiency. But that is not the worst of it. Many rooms are 
occupied and overcrowded which were not originally intended to be 
occupied as working rooms at all, and are without suitable light, 
heat, ventilation or toilet accommodations, and which in several 
cases can not be said to be secure against accident or fire. For 
example, the Examinations Division, with 65 employees, occupies 
a room on the sixth floor in the northeast tower of the Capitol. It 
is reached only by the Senate elevators, on the south side. There 
are no stairways. It is wholly unadapted by reason of insufficient 
light, heat, ventilation, storage accommodations, toilet conveniences 
and means of exit for so many persons engaged in such high grade 
work. It is over the Assembly staircase, about the security of 
which so much is being said. The same conditions prevail essen- 
tially concerning a room in the southwest tower, sixth floor, except 
that this room can be reached only by a private elevator. It is not 
deemed necessary to go further as to details, but it is wholly within 
the fact to say that very many circumstances concerning the insuffi- 
cient spaces at the service of the Department demand the attention 



i8 3 

of the Legislature in the interest of the safety and the ordinary 
comfort of employees, as well as in the interest of efficient and 
economical administration. 

THE REMEDY 

The only means of relief is through a separate building near the 
Capitol. If this should be provided, it would seem that true wisdom 
would make it large enough to accommodate all of the interests in 
charge of the Education Department. It should reasonably antici- 
pate the growth of the next fifteen or twenty years and be so 
planned as to permit of an extension of the State Library stacks at 
any future time. This would release the spaces occupied by the 
Education Department in the Capitol, the old State House and in 
the Geological and Agricultural Hall for other official interests in 
the State government. 

It would seem that the reasons are sufficient for devoting such a 
building to the exclusive use of the Education Department. The 
routine of the Department and the interests for which it stands not 
only claim a large building but one which stands distinctly for the 
intellectual activities and the scientific purposes as distinguished 
from the political contentions and the commercial turmoil of the 
State. It should not only provide for the convenience of educational 
administration, but it should also generate intellectual energy; in 
plan, proportion, and architectural character and ornamentation, 
it should impress the popular mind with the important place which 
education holds in the thought and policies of the Empire State. 

PROPOSED BILL 

Coming to the consideration of a bill which will meet the needs 
of the situation while it protects the interests of the State, the com- 
mittee has had the following ends in view: (a) The new building 
must be architecturally pleasing; (b) It must have much well- 
lighted space for exacting work and secure accommodations for 
collections so arranged as to permit of enlargement for the Library 
and Museum without disturbing the other parts of the building; 
(c) The State should know what the finished building is to cost 
before it is commenced, and the cost should be within a reasonable 
limit, which the committee has fixed at $3,500,000, exclusive of the 
site; and (d) The length of time required for construction should 
also be known in advance, to the end that provision for meeting the 
expense may be systematically made. 

Having these points in mind, the committee has amended the bill 
of Senator Raines to read as attached hereto, and recommends its 
passage. 

Very respectfully submitted 

George R. Maley 

Chairman 



1 84 

AN ACT 

Providing for the acquisition of a site and for the erection of a 
State Education Building, providing for the State Library, State 
Museum, and making an appropriation therefor. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

Section 1 The Trustees of Public Buildings are hereby em- 
powered to determine upon a suitable site near the Capitol for a 
building for the use of the State Education Department, including 
the State Library, the State Museum of Natural History, and to 
acquire the same either by condemnation under the power of 
eminent domain through proceedings instituted by the Attorney 
General, or by negotiation and agreement with the present owner 
or owners as to the just value thereof, and also to proceed to the 
erection of a suitable building thereon for the purposes provided 
herein. 

§ 2 The State Architect under the direction of the Trustees of 
Public Buildings, a member of the Board of Regents of the Univer- 
sity of the State of New York to be selected by the Board and the 
Commissioner of Education, shall prepare floor plans of the build- 
ing showing in a general way the present requirements of the 
various departments to be housed therein and so designed as to 
permit of future additions thereto and providing accommodations 
for the officers and employees of the Education Department with 
suitable accommodations for the safe and proper care of the col- 
lections of every description belonging to the State Library and the 
State Museum, suitable rooms for the Board of Regents as well as 
for an assembly hall. 

§ 3 When such plans as provided for in section 2 shall have 
been prepared, the Trustees of Public Buildings shall give notice by 
advertisement in at least two and not more than five daily news- 
papers published in the State that the furnishing of designs, plans 
and specifications for the construction of such building, which shall 
be of modern fireproof construction and not to cost in the aggregate 
more than three million, five hundred thousand dollars, and intended 
to meet the requirements as indicated in section 2, is open to 
public competition. Said trustees shall make such rules and regula- 
tions governing such competition as in their judgment are necessary. 

§ 4 The Trustees of Public Buildings, the designated member of 
the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, 
the Commissioner of Education and the State Architect shall con- 
stitute a board to which all plans shall be submitted. No plan shall 
bear the name or any distinguishing mark of the architect but shall 
be accompanied with a sealed "envelop containing the name and post 
office address of the architect. Plain and sealed envelops so received 
shall be numbered in duplicate and in the numerical order in which 
they are received. The said board shall examine all plans sub- 
mitted to them and shall select therefrom their first, second and 



185 

third choice and so designate by number. When such selection is 
made the envelop number corresponding to the number of the 
plans shall be opened and the board shall notify the designer that he 
has been awarded first, second or third place as the case might be. 
The plans so selected shall be the absolute property of the State. 

§ 5 When such plans and specifications have been made and 
approved as herein provided, the Trustees of Public Buildings shall 
advertise in not less than five nor more than ten daily newspapers 
of the State for tenders from contractors and builders setting forth 
the terms 1 upon which they will undertake the erection of said build- 
ing according to said plans and specifications. Said tenders shall be 
accompanied by such guaranty bond or cash deposit as shall be 
required by said Trustees of Public Buildings and shall satisfy said 
trustees- that the person, firm, or corporation proposing to erect the 
whole or some part of said building will enter into contract and 
complete the work proposed to be done according to the terms of 
the propositions presented. Said trustees may, in their discretion, 
call for tenders upon the erection of the whole of said building by 
one contracting party, or for the performance of different parts of 
the work by different parties. 

§ 6 The said Trustees of Public Buildings shall, on or before 
January 15, 1907, transmit to the Legislature all plans, specifica- 
tions and bids for the construction of said building together with 
such recommendations in the premises as they see fit to make in 
relation to the construction of said building. 

§ 7 The sum of four hundred thousand dollars is hereby appro- 
priated out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appro- 
priated, for the purchase of the site for said Education Building 
and for any expenses incidental thereto and also for the awards to 
be made by said board under the provisions of section 4, which 
amount shall not exceed in the aggregate twenty thousand dollars, 
or for any other expenses approved by the Governor. The money 
shall be paid by the Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller 
upon the certificate of approval by the Governor. 

§ 8 This act shall take effect immediately. 

There was delay in the Assembly. No real opposition was 
presented ; all claimed to be for it ; but it did not move forward. 
Time passed until it was the day before final adjournment and 
still it rested in the rules committee and would not budge. 
Speaker Wadsworth and other leaders in the house favored it 
cordially, and the fact that it showed no life seemed as surpris- 
ing as it was ominous. An earnest appeal to the Speaker finally 
unearthed the important fact that there was an understanding 
between the Governor and the Speaker that no extraordinary 
appropriations should be passed in the Assembly unless the Gov- 
ernor signified his approval, and that approval had been withheld 



i86 

in the case of this bill. The Commissioner of Education asked 
for an audience with the Governor, and received word that he 
was so occupied that it would not be possible that day. But it 
was that day or never. The Commissioner returned the answer 
that he wished to see the Governor about the Education Building 
bill ; that it would be no use to see him later ; that if the Governor 
would hear him it would be appreciated; and that if he refused, 
it would be resented:. The Governor then invited the interview 
at once. The Commissioner opened it by an expression of sur- 
prise that the Governor, after all that had been said, was ob- 
structing the passage of the Education Building bill ; the Gover- 
nor said he was not running the Legislature; the Commissioner 
answered that he was stopping it from running so far as that 
bill was concerned. The Governor said that he could not assent 
to that, but was told that the information was direct and con- 
vincing. He said " Commissioner, your Department ought to 
have that building, but it can not be had without scandal, or at 
least without criticism that will besmirch my administration, and I 
would like to have the people of the State believe that this admini- 
stration is an honest one." It revealed the man admirably. It was 
not only excusable ; it was creditable to him. He was even then 
far from well. He died the following winter, three weeks after 
the inauguration of his successor, and after risking too much to 
do his part in the inaugural ceremonies. He had integrity that 
was never questioned, was wholly familiar with the business of 
the State, and too jealous of the honor of his administration 
freely to take initiatory steps which circumstances often made 
advisable if not necessary. The answer had to be made firmly. 
It was this : " Governor Higgins, this bill is right. That build- 
ing is imperatively necessary. The people of New York have 
a confidence in your integrity and business experience which will 
make them more disposed to have this thing managed by you 
than you imagine. It is absurd to say that New York can not 
do without a scandal what she needs to do, for that admits the 
breakdown of democratic government. Our experiences with 
the Capitol should qualify us for doing such a thing as this much 
better than we otherwise would. In any event, it must be said 
that if you were to veto this bill as a public duty after you had 
had it under consideration for thirty days and had heard all that 
was to be said tor or against it, all of us would have to accept 
your veto in good spirit ; but if you knife it in the back and in the 



i8 7 

dark you will arouse a bitter resentment of which you will never 
hear the last." He said " I have nothing to do with the action 
of the Legislature and will neither help nor hinder this bill in 
the Assembly." "May I carry that from you to the Speaker?" 
the Commissioner asked. " Yes," he replied, " say to the 
Speaker that in spite of all conversations I wish the Assembly 
to act without any reference to me concerning the Education 
Building." The committee on rules very soon placed the bill 
on the calendar for the next and last day, and it passed, with but 
two opposing votes, after the clock had been turned back so as 
not to strike the hour of adjournment. The letters and press 
notices which the Governor received in the next thirty days 
made it easy for him to sign the bill, and he made it a law on 
Friday, June I, 1906. 

At the meeting of the Regents on June 28th, Dr Albert Vander 
Veer was designated as the Regent who should be a member of 
the' Board of Award. 

It was the plan of the act providing for the building — an 
arrangement proposed by the Education Department — that all 
business and financial phases of the project should be executed 
by the Trustees of Public Buildings, but that the Department 
should have much to say about the architectural plans and the 
interior arrangements of the structure. This seemed satisfactory 
to all ; the Legislature would not be content to hand business 
matters over to " educators " but was entirely reconciled to let 
the " educators " work over plans and details, and the " edu- 
cators " were quite content to avoid responsibility about con- 
tracts and very willing to work over architectural plans in hope 
of having what was wanted when the work was done. So the 
Trustees of Public Buildings, consisting of the Governor, the 
Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the Assembly, were 
charged with the determination and acquisition of the site and 
the making of contracts for the erection of the building. The 
State Architect, a Regent of the University (Dr Vander Veer) 
and the Commissioner of Education were required to prepare 
floor plans for a structure " showing in a general way the pres- 
ent requirements of the various departments to be housed therein 
and so designed as to permit of future additions thereto and pro» 
viding accommodations for the officers and employees of the 
Education Department with suitable accommodations for the 
safe and proper care of the collections of every description be- 



longing to the State Library and the State Museum, suitable 
rooms for the Board of Regents, as well as for an assembly hall." 
Upon this basis the trustees were to* announce the terms of an 
architectural competition, the essential features of which had 
been particularly specified in the act, and the six officers, to be 
known as the Board of Award, were to determine upon the 
designs and specifications which were first, second, and third in 
the order of merit and which should become the property of the 
State. Then upon the basis of the designs of first merit, but using 
any desirable features in the others which had become the property 
of the State, the Trustees of Public Buildings should advertise for 
tenders, let contracts, and look after their proper execution. 

There was no disagreement over the site. All sites north, 
west, and south of the Capitol were considered. The valuations 
of each of the neighboring blocks for taxing purposes were ob- 
tained and the proportions and shape of a building upon each 
were discussed. There was much uncertainty for a time. The 
two blocks bounded by Washington avenue, Hawk and Elk 
streets and Park place were looked upon very seriously. Taking 
that site would have involved the building of the Albany Acad- 
emy to some extent at least, and this fact caused violent protests 
from many graduates to the one of their number who was the 
Commissioner of Education. At this juncture Mr Cutler, an 
architect, came into the Commissioner's office, and with pencil 
suggested a very rough outline of the front of a long building 
which might be placed upon the block bounded by Washington 
avenue, Swan, Hawk and Elk streets, with so much effect that 
he was asked to amplify it and did so. These rough pencilings 
made a rather deep impression and are yet preserved. This 
site was taken and, although it has been much criticized, it is 
beyond doubt the most desirable site adjacent to the Capitol. 
The considerations which soon led all the members of the Board 
to favor it are the extent of ground space, the long front afford- 
ing opportunity for such magnificent architectural treatment as 
it has since received, the fact that every room would be an out- 
side room with ample light and air without recourse to interior 
shafts or courts, additional ground for future extension which 
already belonged to the State, and in time, with the necessary 
clearing of the ground in front of it, would make possible the 
best architectural and landscape effects. 



189 

This site has a frontage of 659.6 feet, and a depth on Swan 
and Hawk streets of 140 feet, with an adjoining parcel of land in 
the rear 165.87 by 190 feet between the Cathedral of All Saints 
and the present Capitol boiler house. It was assumed that the 
boiler house would be removed and, as the State is erecting 
another across the ravine, that seems assured. Upon this site 
of approximately 141,110 square feet there were 50 brick build- 
ings, 10 wooden structures, and 4 vacant parcels of land. The 
valuations for taxing purposes were $297,500. As soon as the 
site was decided upon the owners naturally enough began to 
think that their property was far more valuable when it came 
to selling to the State than it was as a basis for taxation. Gov- 
ernor Higgins asked the Commissioner of Education to negotiate 
with the owners and see if the State could not secure some of the 
64 properties by agreement, and that was done as to nearly half 
of them by paying an advance of 25 per cent over the assessable 
valuation. The others were taken by condemnation. The total 
cost of the site was $466,440.75. 

The terms of the competition for architectural designs were 
announced by the Board of Award August 30, 1906. It set 
forth in detail the spaces and accommodations that would be 
required and specified the sketches and drawings that must be 
furnished. Every precaution was taken to secure anonymity 
in the competition. All architects were admitted to the first 
competition, and out of all the designs submitted the ten having 
the most promise were selected and their authors were each paid 
$500. The architects presenting the ten most meritorious de- 
signs were determined to be as follows : 
Allen & Collens, 6 Beacon street, Boston, Mass. 
Martin C. Miller & Walter P. R. Pember, Mutual Life Build- 
ing, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Pell & Corbett, 31 Union Square, New York City 
George Cary, 184 Delaware avenue, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Palmer & Hornbostel, 63 William street, New York City 
Wells & Hathaway, 11 18 Tremont Building, Boston, Mass. 
Hedman & Schoen and Goodwin & Jacoby, 302 Broadway. 
New York City 

J. H. Freedlander, 244 Fifth avenue, New York City 
Howells & Stokes, 100 William street, New York City 
P. Thornton Marye and Frederic W. Brown & A. Ten Eyck 
'Brown, Equitable Building, Atlanta, Ga. 



190 

The authors of the ten best designs were then paid $1000 each 
for participating in a second competition. They were advised 
as to further details and were invited to Albany to offer sugges- 
tions as to the plans for the final competition. At the end of 
the final competition the three designs held to have most merit 
were chosen. The authors of the design held to be third in the 
order of merit, which we will call the No. 3 design, were Messrs 
Miller & Pember of Buffalo, N. Y., and they were paid an extra 
$'1000. The authors of the No. 2 design were Messrs Howells 
& Stokes of New York City, and they were paid an extra $2000. 
The authors of the No. 1 design were Messrs. Palmer & Horn- 
bostel, 63 William street, New York City, and they were given 
the commission for executing the building. From the beginning 
to the end of the delicate and complicated procedure there was 
no complaint made to the Board of Award by any of the parties 
interested. 

Sixty-three designs were submitted in the first competition. 
Governor Higgins's health was steadily declining and he con- 
tinually left it to others to look after details and in very large 
measure to look after the proceedings in general, but he sat 
with the Board and participated in the elimination of fifty-three 
designs. Nor was there much difficulty in selecting the best 
three in the ten in the final competition, but there was a rub when 
it came to deciding between the best two. 

The prospectus for the second competition was issued January 
10, 1907. Hon. Charles Evans Hughes became Governor January 
1, 1907, and the Board had the benefit of his extended travel, keen 
purpose to secure the best advantage for the State, and incisive 
ways of doing things, while it was slowly working its way to 
a conclusion as to the most desirable architectural design. 

The Board of Award consisted in the first instance of the late 
Hon. Frank W. Fliggins, Governor, and Hon. M. Linn Bruce, 
Lieutenant Governor, who served until the completion of their 
terms of office; Hon. James W. Wadsworth, jr, Speaker of the 
Assembly; Dr Andrew S. Draper, Commissioner of Education; 
the late Hon. George L. Heins, State Architect, who served until 
his death on September 25, 1907; and Dr Albert Vander Veer, 
Regent, who was designated by the Board of Regents in accord- 
ance with the statute. Hon. Charles E. Hughes, Governor, and 
Hon. Lewis S. Chanler, Lieutenant Governor, served after taking 
office on January 1, 1907. Hon. Franklin B. Ware, State Archi- 



191 

tect, served after his appointment on October 15, 1907. The 
Speaker of the Assembly, the Commissioner of Education, and 
Regent Vander Veer served continuously. 

Chapter 578, Laws of 1907, the annual supply bill, made the 
first actual appropriation for the construction of the building as 
follows : 

For beginning the construction of the new State Education Build- 
ing pursuant to chapter 678, Laws of 1906, one million five hundred 
thousand dollars, payable on the certificate of the Governor, of 
which one hundred thousand dollars shall be available immediately, 
four hundred thousand dollars on October 1, 1907, and the remain- 
der on March 1, 1908, and from which may also be paid any defi- 
ciency in the appropriation made by said chapter for acquiring the 
site for the building and the expenses incidental thereto. The 
Trustees of Public Buildings are hereby authorized to enter into 
contract for the erection and completion of said building, upon 
terms believed by said trustees to be most advantageous to the State 
at a total cost of not more than three million five hundred thousand 
dollars for the building exclusive of the site therefor. 

The real contest was between the classical design upon which 
the building has been executed and one which could hardly be 
said to represent any established type of architecture but pre- 
sented what promised to be an exceedingly handsome building 
for some purposes and which had the advantage of being repre- 
sented in an exceedingly attractive picture. The State Architect, 
Mr George L. Heines, supported this No. 2 design. The smoke 
of a contest with the Commissioner of Education over the archi- 
tectural designs of the State Normal College buildings which had 
but recently been settled had not yet cleared. The Speaker sus- 
tained the Architect's views. Regent Vander Veer and the Com- 
missioner of Education early espoused the classical building. 
Lieutenant Governor Chanler refrained from committing himself 
for a while but in time declared for the classical building. That 
made three for it out of six, not enough to select it but apparently 
enough to prevent the selection of any other. That it was enough 
to prevent the selection of any other design was not as absolutely 
certain, however, as the simple mathematics might lead one to 
think, for the Governor had personnel and powers that could 
pretty nearly defy either simple or complex mathematics. Several 
meetings were held and the two pictures gazed at and discussed. 
The Governor was cheerful, but reticent upon the real issue. 
Dnce he asked the Commissioner of Education why he did not 



T 92 

like the No. 2 picture : the latter was obliged to admit that it 
made a pretty picture and that the design might do for some 
purposes and in some places. In Hughes fashion the Governor 
said " Glad you admit so much : for what purpose and what place 
would it do? " It was a hard question but the answer was " Well, 
Governor, it is residential architecture and it needs a tropical 
environment. When Hawaii becomes separated from the United' 
States and Liliuokalani regains her throne it might do for a palace 
for her at Honolulu." The Governor enjoyed the banter and after- 
ward referred to the second design as the " Honolulu Building." 
It may possibly have weighed as much as a feather upon his final 
decision. 

Nothing was done for six weeks, when the Governor tele- 
phoned that he wanted a meeting of the Board in twenty minutes. 
He had it. Soon he came in, looked at the pictures once more, 
and asked each member of the Board if he had changed his mind. 
All the minds stood firm. It was up to his Excellency. He 
said " Well, gentlemen, it is time we had a show down. This 
thing ought to be settled. I see that if it is settled I shall have to 
settle it. I am sorry for that. I feel my incompetency to settle 
such a matter as this. I am a lawyer and not a judge of archi- 
tecture. I have seen much of the best architecture of the world 
and know what I like, but I have never studied architecture with 
reference to its history and adaptations, I ought not to have to 
settle this, but it is the American way of doing public business 
and perhaps it is all right. If I vote for the No. I design it will 
be chosen : if I vote for the No. 2 there will be a deadlock. I 
would avoid a deadlock if I could properly do so, and I am glad 
to be able to say that I have come to a confident conclusion which 
will do it. As time has passed I have become more and more 
impressed with the possibilities of the classical building; I have 
found that the weight of competent opinion favors it, and am 
convinced that it will be safer to vote for it than the other. So 
the secretary may call the roll and we will record our votes." 
The result was four to two in favor of the design that has now 
been executed, and every month of its progress toward com- 
pletion has given so much evidence of the wisdom of the de- 
termination that those who at first doubted have been convinced. 

It was May 16, 1907 when the Board of Award announced its 
final conclusions. The board made some suggestions to the 
architects in regard to minor changes and one important change 



193 

in the front elevation. The important change was that the heavy- 
cornice shown just above the colonnade in the original sketch 
be carried higher up and almost to the point where it would 
hide the roof. This was done with good result. But this was 
by no means the sum of the work done in bringing the plans 
to perfection after the award had been made. The architects had 
followed the general directions given them and made provisions 
for the different divisions of the Department, but the interior 
arrangement had to be all worked over before the assignments 
were satisfactory to the interests concerned. This was done 
by the architects and the officers of the Education Department 
with a patient attention to detail which has been thoroughly 
appreciated and well rewarded. 

The architectural treatment of this building was decided upon 
after great study and research. A building of this character must, 
primarily, be dignified, imposing, and treated in a style which 
would be sure to retain its charm through all the periodical 
changes of fashion in styles. The fact that the building is situated 
upon a street the width of which does not permit its being viewed 
in front from any considerable distance, and the fact that the 
building must face the south, largely determined the treatment 
of the main facade ; for, in the first place, a special central motif 
or pavilion was clearly not called for, and, secondly, advantage 
must be taken of the full play of direct sunlight. Since this 
facade must of necessity be viewed for the most part obliquely, 
it would be essentially happy to employ a colonnade, the effect 
of which, when looked at obliquely with its strongly vanishing 
prospective lines, is most impressive, and which, at the same 
time, makes the most of the interesting possibilities of sunlight 
and shadow. Considering all these conditions, a huge colonnade, 
standing well out from a wall pierced by a series of huge semi- 
circular openings which allow great window area, and produce 
a secondary architectural effect, was decided upon. In other 
words, the faqade consists of a colonnade, which is the most 
dignified of architectural motifs, resting on a proper and power- 
ful stylobate ; behind the colonnade is an arcade, ample in its 
proportions and interesting in its repetition. The entire facade 
is crowned by a huge solid wall or attic which unifies and gives 
strength to the facade, at the same time expressing the walls of 
the museum. The end facades are modifications of the front, 
the columnar treatment being carried across the ends, and the 



194 

rear facade recalls, in its treatment, the wall behind the colonnade 
in front. The entire building is covered by a roof of copper, 
the eaves of which are decorated by means of a carved cheneau. 
The building is placed 50 feet back of the building line, and the 
space thus afforded will be treated with lawns, trees, hedges, and, 
in general, with the elements of landscape architecture. A mag- 
nificent flight of easy steps leading to the main entrance at the 
center of the building. The materials used on the front and end 
fagades are for the most part white marble, terra cotta and dark 
granite; the latter being used for the stylobate, or bate of the 
building. The rear walls of the building use a light-colored 
vitreous brick and terra cotta. 

The basement contains rooms for service of all kinds, rock- 
cutting plant for the museum, workshop, janitor's and cleaners' 
rooms, toilet rooms for the staff and for the public, storage rooms, 
shipping rooms, a driveway and court for shipping purposes, 
elevators, ventilating, heating and lighting apparatus, and the 
lower floors of the great book stack of the library. 

At the eastern end of the building beginning in the basement 
and occupying two stories is the auditorium with a gallery and 
promenade on three sides. The stage which has an architectural 
treatment of four huge Corinthian columns forming a curved 
loggia, is flanked by large niches for pipe organs. The auditorium 
is lighted by twelve large windows and its decorative treatment 
is in a modified Greek style. 

To explain more in detail the disposition and treatment of the 
building it will be best to consider the structure from the point 
of one entering the building by the great flight of steps cork 
ducting to the main entrance on the first floor. On entering the 
vestibule, one finds, directly opposite, the main group of eleva- 
tors ; to the right, a massive and easy staircase leading directly 
to the second floor rotunda ; and to the left, the bureau of infor- 
mation. Under the staircase leading to the second floor rotunda, 
is the staircase conducting to the basement floor. On the first 
floor, one passes from the entrance vestibule into a broad, vaulted 
corridor which runs east and west and leads to exits at both 
ends of the building. By means of this corridor access is given 
to the different offices of the Education Department. The 
Regents' chamber and the rooms of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation will receive special architectural treatment. The Regents' 
chamber, which is located in the west pavilion, has walls of 



195 

r 

Indiana limestone and a carved beam ceiling of oak. The Com- 
missioner's rooms adjacent to the Regents' chamber on the front 
of the building are treated in the Tudor style of Gothic with 
mahogany wainscoting. Other officers on the front to the left 
of the main entrance accommodate the three Assistant Commis- 
sioners and the Administration Division. To the right of the 
main entrance on the front are the quarters of the Visual In- 
struction Division. Beginning at the western end in the rear of 
the building are located the School Libraries Division, the Law 
Division, general accommodations for stenographers and clerks, 
the cashier's office, the storekeeper's room, the Inspections Di- 
vision, the Attendance Division, the Statistics Division, and the 
supply, filing and mailing rooms. The quarters of the State Ex- 
aminations Board are to the right of the main entrance in the 
rear. The wing in the rear on the first floor contains the con- 
tinuation of the book stacks and at either side the rooms for 
manuscripts, maps and charts and for cataloging, accessions etc. 
In addition to the elevators already mentioned opposite the main 
entrance there are two passenger elevators at the eastern and 
western ends of the building and one on either side of the rear 
wing. There are also minor staircases in each instance near these 
elevators. 

On reaching the rotunda on the second floor, already men- 
tioned, several vistas open to view : to the north a great barrel- 
vaulted corridor 40 feet in width, 46 feet in height and 50 feet in 
length, leading to the general reference reading room ; to the east 
a shorter vaulted corridor leading to the technical and medical 
libraries ; and to the west a similar corridor leading to the law 
and sociological libraries. The rotunda, thus located at the in- 
tersection of these vaulted corridors, gives a dominating climax 
to the architectural treatment. Over the rotunda, supported on 
pendentives, is a circular colonnade. This colonnade in turn 
supports a dome in which is a large skylight providing direct 
daylight to the rotunda below. This rotunda and its vaulted 
corridors are constructed of Indiana limestone. In the rotunda are 
the following inscriptions: " 1784 1854 1904 The University 
of the State of New York ;" " Here shall be gathered the best books 
of all lands and all ages ;" " This library aims to uplift the State 
and serve every citizen ;" " A system of free common schools wherein 
all the children of this State may be educated." Conveniently 
arranged between columns, steel cases afford suitable provision 



196 

for the most interesting historical exhibits ; the rotunda is there* 
fore virtually a historical museum. With its wings, the rotunda 
measures about 100 feet by 100 feet. The height of the dome 
above the second floor is 94 feet. Coming now to the disposition 
of the special libraries (medicine, law, sociological and technical) 
attention is called to an innovation of a highly practical character. 
This is the introduction of stack rooms in the center of the build- 
ing. This arrangement gives the reading rooms the easiest access 
possible to their respective collections of books. The archi- 
tectural treatment of these rooms is consistently simple and 
dignified. The general reference reading room, with its depend- 
encies, occupies practically the entire north wing. It is placed 
directly above, and in immediate connection with, an immense 
stack room having a capacity of 2,000,000 volumes. Attention is 
here called to another innovation : after much study it was decided 
to place the books in artificially lighted stack rooms, the tem- 
perature, humidity and ventilating of which could be absolutely 
controlled. The architectural treatment of the general reference 
reading room is at once both novel and bold. It consists of 
twelve slender bronze columns supporting a series of terra cotta 
domes. The walls are of stone and the room receives sunlight 
by means of eleven huge leaded glass windows. The lateral di- 
mensions of this room are 106 feet by 130 feet and the height 
of the domes is about 50 feet. On this floor, in connection with 
the rooms already described, are the necessary dependencies : 
offices of the Director, card catalog room, studies, coat rooms, 
lavatories etc. 

On the third floor are located the offices and Avorkrooms of the 
Examinations Division, the Educational Extension Division and 
the Library School. The main reading room of the library 
already mentioned extends through the third floor. 

The fourth floor is devoted entirely to the State Museum and 
contains the State collections in geology, mineralogy, paleon- 
tology, archeology, botany and zoology. These collections will 
be housed in rooms lighted from above. The principal room on 
the south side of the building, though subdivided into sections, 
affords a vista its entire length. It is 570 feet in length, 50 feet 
in height and 54 feet in width ; it is not equaled in open and 
dignified space by any other museum in the country. These 
rooms are all given an agreeable architectural treatment. Access 
is afforded from this main museum tc the north wins: of the build- 



197 

ing; on going to the north wing, one passes the circular colonnade 
of the rotunda before mentioned ; and between the columns a 
comprehensive view of the rotunda is afforded. The offices of 
the Director of the museum and his assistants are located on a 
mezzanine in the rear, adjacent to the exhibition rooms. 

Reviewing the plans, as a whole, attention may be called finally 
to the arrangement of practical details ; among these is the 
location of the driveway court under the north wing of the build- 
ing which makes the delivery of books easy and direct ; the con- 
centration of lavatories and lockers for the service and for the 
public ; the ample provision for mechanical transportation, com- 
munication, ventilation, heating and lighting ; and the thorough- 
ness with which the construction of the building insures every 
modern facility for administration and assures every protection 
against fire. 

Such are the principal features of the State Education Build- 
ing: the effort has been made everywhere to answer practical 
needs, to conserve space as much as possible, to provide for 
future expansion and to treat the building in a thoroughly sane 
and modern spirit alike in its utilitarian and its esthetic aspects. 

In the meantime the site was being cleared and the soil tested 
for stable foundations. The reports from the borings were that 
there was no quicksand, but these were, to some extent at least, 
incorrect, for later several sand pockets were found which delayed 
the foundations and involved considerable unexpected expense. 
It was May 1908 before the finished plans and specifications 
could be delivered to contractors who might make tenders for 
the execution of the work. About thirty invitations to figure 
upon the work or parts of it were responded to, and on July 
10, 1908 the contract for the entire work was let to the R. T. 
Ford Company of Rochester for the sum of $3,022,282. The 
contract price was somewhat lower than had been expected and 
this obviated the necessity of eliminating any features of the 
approved plans. The work was actually commenced July 29, 
1908, when the first shovelful of cement and the first wheel- 
barrow loads of broken stone were thrown into the trench. 
Governor Hughes and the Commissioner of Education attended 
and with others threw their pennies into the mixture in order to 
" strengthen the foundations." 

While the work was in progress the State provided for and 
began the erection of a new central heating and lighting station 



198 

at the north end of the Hawk Street viaduct. It is expected that 
this will meet the needs of the Capitol and Education Building 
together and that it will be in operation by the fall of 1912. It 
will lead to the removal of the old station and provide the room 
for the extension of the Education Building when that may- 
be necessary. 

By the terms of the contract the work should have been com- 
pleted by January I, 191 1 and if it had been the collections of the 
Education Department would have escaped serious injury by the 
fire which destroyed the west half of the Capitol March 29, 
191 1. The work of construction often dragged and in the winters 
before that of 1911-1912 was almost completely interrupted. The 
issues between the architects and the builders over the methods 
of doing the work were many and marked by much contro- 
versy. The design for the exterior has been exactly executed. 
Even the floor plans for the interior were so carefully studied 
at the beginning that the changes which have been necessary 
in such a monumental structure have been very few. In view 
of the experience at the New York City Public Library recently 
erected it was decided to put a composition floor, for the sake 
of quiet, in all of the main rooms of the State Library ; and after 
the Capitol fire it was decided to install a full equipment of 
safety vaults in the basement which should be burglar, fire, 
and dampness proof, for the care of historical documents. On 
the whole, the work has progressed as satisfactorily as is often 
experienced in such a large building erected by the State. Speak- 
ing of size it may be observed that the space within the Educa- 
tion Building is 11,348,850 cubic feet while that within the 
Capitol is 14,475,000 cubic feet. 

January 1, 191 1 Hon. John Alden Dix became Governor, Hon. 
Thomas F. Conway Lieutenant Governor, and Lion. Daniel D. 
Frisbie Speaker of the Assembly, and therefore Trustees of Pub- 
lic Buildings in charge of the work. They have worked assidu- 
ously to bring the structure to an early and successful com- 
pletion. Governor Dix has gone over the building occasionally, 
and sagaciously exercised the great powers of his high office 
to assure the most satisfactory results. Hon. Edwin A. Merritt, 
jr, became Speaker of the Assembly with the organization of the 
Legislature of 1912 and brought to the final stages of the work 
on the material side the enthusiasm which he had long shown 
for it as a leader in the lower house. 



199 

In 1910 the Legislature consolidated all of the statutes relat- 
ing to public education in the " Education Law." In view of 
the progress of the Education Building a section was added 
(section 27) to the law, providing that " After the completion 
of the State Education Building it shall be occupied exclusively 
by the Education Department, including the University, with 
the State Library, the State Museum, and its other departments, 
together with other work with which the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation and the Regents have official relations, as they may in 
their discretion provide for therein." 

Having come to the time when provision must be made for 
furnishing the new building, and having lost the major part of 
the State Library by fire, the Legislature of 191 1 passed the 
following act : 

AN ACT 

Providing for the reestablishment of the State Library and making 
an appropriation therefor, and authorizing contracts for furnish- 
ing the Education Building. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows: 

Section 1 The Commissioner of Education is hereby authorized 
and directed, pursuant to the rules of the Regents of the Univer- 
sity of the State of New York, to take such measures, make such 
contracts and incur such traveling and other expenses, not exceed- 
ing in the aggregate the sum of one million two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, as may be necessary to reestablish and enlarge 
the State Library, by gathering suitable books, pamphlets, manu- 
scripts and other materials for the reference library, historical 
library, education library, law library, medical library, technological 
library, and the sociological, genealogical and other collections 
therefor, so as not only to restore the loss and remedy the damages 
to the State Library and to the State Museum collections therein 
occasioned by the fire which occurred in the State Capitol on the 
29th day of March, 191 1, but also so as to create in the course of 
years a comprehensive State Library which will meet the varied 
needs of the government and the people of the State of New York. 
The said Commissioner of Education shall acquire, by purchase or 
gift, books, pamphlets, manuscripts, records, archives, maps, papers 
and other documents, and relics and museum collections to replace, 
so far as possible, and to add to those destroyed or damaged by 
such fire. He may acquire in like manner such other property as 
may be necessary for the reestablishment of such library, and when- 
ever practicable may cause such books, manuscripts, pamphlets, 
records, maps and papers as may have been damaged by such fire 
to be repaired, rebound or treated in such other way as he may 
think well. The said books, pamphlets, manuscripts, records, 



200 

archives, maps, papers and other documents and property thus 
gathered shall be placed in and become a part of the New York 
State Library. The reestablishment of such library and the ac- 
quisition of such books, pamphlets, manuscripts, records, archives, 
maps, papers and other documents and property shall proceed under 
and be subject to the provisions of the Education Law, and the 
rules and directions of the Regents of the University of the State 
of New York, who are the trustees of said library ; provided, how- 
ever, that the Commissioner of Education, in making contracts 
authorized under this section, shall not make contracts requiring 
the payment of money in an amount in excess of five hundred 
thousand dollars, prior to October i, 1913. The sum of fifty thou- 
sand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, which shall 
be available immediately, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys 
in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose 
of carrying into effect the provisions of this section. 

§ 2 The Commissioner of Education is hereby authorized to enter 
into contracts for an amount not to exceed in the aggregate the 
sum of two hundred thousand dollars for such furniture and office 
fixtures as may be necessary for the State Education Building and 
the rooms and offices thereof. 

§ 3 Nothing in this act shall be construed to create a liability 
on the part of the State for the payment of any money except as 
such payment shall be provided for by appropriations made herein 
or hereafter, pursuant to law. 

§ 4 The moneys hereby appropriated shall be expended under the 
direction of the Commissioner of Education in accordance with the 
provisions of the Education Law and the rules of the Regents, and 
shall be paid out on the warrant of the Comptroller in the same 
manner as other moneys appropriated for the use of the State 
Education Department. 

§ 5 This act shall take effect immediately. 

This act became a law on October 24, 191 1, by the approval 
of Governor Dix. 

A large part of the furniture of the building will be of metal. 
The equipment for all the stacks in the Library, as well as all open 
shelving used throughout the building, will be of steel. Metal filing 
cases will be used in the main filing room and in all offices where 
files are found in any quantity. The desks, chairs and tables used 
in the various offices will be of wood. The furniture for the 
Regents room, the rotunda, the main reading room in the Library, 
and the reference library reading room, has been especially designed 
by the architects to harmonize with the decorative treatment of 
the rooms themselves. 

Not only is the building fire-proof in every detail, but special 
provision has been made for the safekeeping of manuscripts and 



201 

other valuable relics which are in the possession of the Department. 
A large safety vault, fifteen by forty-three feet, with ample steel 
boxes and cases, has been built in the basement. Within this there 
is a smaller vault of special construction which will be used for the 
safekeeping of the Emancipation Proclamation, Washington's Fare- 
well Address, the Andre papers, the King Charles II Charter, the 
Washington relics and other unique papers and relics. W'ith the 
construction of these vaults every provision has been made to care 
for the valuable manuscripts and records held by the Department. 

There has been installed a special switchboard which gives long 
distance telephone connection with every division and with the 
larger offices throughout the Department. There is also an inter- 
nal intercommunicating system for the various offices, and a telau- 
tograph for all sections of the State Library. These modern and 
complete methods of intercommunication will greatly facilitate the 
details of administration. 

The ventilating system throughout the building is complete. 
Large fans for forcing fresh air to all offices are provided in the 
basement. There is also a complete vacuum cleaning system. 
These provisions insure the most sanitary and hygienic arrangements 
throughout the entire building, as well as the most modern 
equipment. 

The mural paintings which are to adorn the grand staircase and 
the rotunda are to be the work of the well-known artist, Mr Will 
H. Low. The general title of the paintings is to be " The Aspira- 
tion of Man for Intellectual Enlightenment and the Results of its 
Attainment." There are about thirty-two panels with approximately 
seventeen hundred and thirty square feet to be decorated. It is 
the belief of the artist that fifteen of these spaces may contain 
developed compositions of several figures, that four will permit the 
use of a single figure, and that the others must be treated by deco- 
rative ornament. Without doubt Mr Low will produce a work 
worthy to remain as a memorial of the Empire State. 

Thus the only building erected by any American state or 
foreign country for the exclusive use of its educational activities, 
comes to its culmination. It is a culmination as beautiful and 
magnificent as the conception was honorable and inspiring. And 
it has been reached without a public scandal and within the cost 
originally set apart for the great enterprise. 



THE NORMAL PROGRESS OF THE UNITED 

STATES 



203 



THE NORMAL PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 1 

Mr Toastmaster and Gentlemen of 

the University of Vermont: 

I have always looked upon the University of Vermont with 
something of the same feeling that I do upon old St Andrews, the 
university that has held up the light of learning for five hundred 
years upon the rugged coast of Scotland, and I am glad enough 
to accept the invitation of my friend and pastor, Reverend Doctor 
Hopkins, to break bread with the loyal sons of such an honorable 
institution. One makes a mistake when he undertakes to speak 
upon a subject with which he is not very intimate, to those who 
are a part of it and know all about it. Therefore I can not take 
your university for my theme. But I have a theme I want to 
talk about and as you are the first company of college men to 
whom I have been called upon to speak since I have wanted to 
talk about it you are destined to be the victims. 

My friend Chancellor Day, of Syracuse University, made a 
speech here in Albany the other evening. It was made to a 
seasoned lot of college men who enjoyed it, in college fashion, 
whether they accepted it or not. It was quickened with patriotic 
earnestness, graced with imagination, and energized with good 
oratory. I think its premise unfounded and its logic fallacious ; 
and as my friend is not an intellectual defective, nor a femme sole, 
and does not need a guardian ad litem in any court, I am going to 
make free to say something about it. 

I would, if I could, repeat all of that speech to you, but if I 
did I should have no time for a word of my own. In brief and 
in general, the Chancellor said he had been around the world 
without seeing an American flag on any boat save one limping 
craft which did not represent his country. He did not like it. 
The genius which built our railroads, opened our mines, and 
attended to all our large business interests was being annihilated 
by small men and cruel laws. His concrete illustration was the 
growth and the difficulties of that helpless child of the State, the 
New York Central Railroad. He could remember when one had 
to take a half dozen poor trains and recheck trunks as many times, 



1 Address at the dinner at the University of Vermont Alumni, Albany, January 
31, 1912. 

20; 



206 

go hungry, pay large fares, and spend two days going from New- 
York to Buffalo. Now he removes his hat to the Empire State 
Express. He thought it too bad that such splendid enterprise 
should be hampered by people who have no initiative and not 
much referendum. He was opposed to putting down genius and 
destroying big business. He was not a pessimist; he still had 
hopes for the country; but things looked badly to him and he had 
the courage to say so. He called upon the spirits of the great to 
return. He wanted the ship of state to put to sea; to have good 
winds and open water; to be commanded by a real captain; and 
to fly plenty of flags that are bright with color and full of stars. 

Now, that is not what I see at all. My friend must be looking 
into the wrong end of the telescope, or into one pointed at some 
other country or some other sphere. My glass shows a hundred 
millions of people among whom intelligence is almost universal 
and genius widely diffused; making no obeisance to mere might in 
any form ; conserving their material and moral and political estates ; 
grappling with the newest and the largest social and economic 
questions; and developing a world of human kinship, and human 
justice, and human opportunity, and of even-handed human prog- 
ress of which the freest imagination in all literature never dreamed. 

It is true that we have not much of a merchant marine. What 
we once had was destroyed by the Confederate cruisers in the 
Civil War. I happen to know about that for I had to hear the 
testimony. When it happened, our relations with England and her 
dependencies were strained, the whale fisheries were giving out, 
and we were not buying heavily of China silks. We had little 
spare money and there was little to induce putting it into vessels 
of the sea. Both our imports and our exports were few. Other 
nations built up a carrying trade by subsidies, to which more than 
half our people seem to be conscientiously opposed. Without 
knowing any too much about it, I think I would have put less 
money into battleships and more into ships that would carry people 
and mails and goods to and from the other nations of the world. 
But there is nothing significant or ominous about it. One may 
often get along more economically or use his money to more 
advantage by living in a hired house. Both our exports and im- 
ports were larger last year than in any other year in our history; 
and larger in the last five years, and in the last ten years, than in 
any other five or ten years since we became a nation. I too have 
been in foreign harbors and cities, and never without seeing our 



207 

flag in all her glory. No other nation is ignorant of the United 
States. There is not another people in the world who are not 
looking longingly beyond what Kipling calls the " salted seas " to 
what Ambassador Reid calls " the greatest fact in modern history " 
— the great new nation of the world. 

Now, as to our hobbling genius, let us take the same illustration 
that Chancellor Day does — the New York Central Railroad. We 
all admire the business thrift that bound a half dozen short roads 
together, that laid more tracks and built greater engines, and 
developed better and faster trains. But how can one ignore the 
metho'ds that were employed, or shut his eyes to what would have 
been if New York State had not " put restraints upon enterprise ! " 
That road overreached the people with the very power it got from 
them. It misled and corrupted legislatures to circumvent restraints 
and get more power. By maneuvering rates of transportation and 
issuing new securities, it robbed its own patrons. By organizations 
within organizations its directors filched their own stockholders. 
It employed the ablest lawyers, manipulated jury lists, influenced 
jurors, and even reached after judgeships to strengthen its hands 
and defeat all claims made upon it. It engaged in politics all 
along its lines, aiding the men in all parties who would respond to 
its demands. There was no golden rule in its vocabulary, and it 
was before law had anticipated such a power and such a danger. 
Happily that is largely if not wholly in the past. If the thing had 
gone on we would have shown our incapacity for government and 
the State of New York would have become the State of the New 
York Central. 

But this railroad was not content with uniting short roads in a 
continuous line from New York to Buffalo ; it was bent upon con- 
necting great links in through lines from New York and Boston 
to St Louis, Kansas City or San Francisco. Other great roads 
had the same ambitions. They even had some thought of getting 
together and taking possession of the country. When one state 
tried to deal with them they would step over the line into another 
state that was unprepared for them, and their astute lawyers 
would raise legal questions enough to paralyze the state courts and 
legislatures. Congress and the Federal courts had to unite with 
the states in dealing with the subject; and it was one without 
precedent and of profound difficulty. 

Law-making always seems difficult except to those who know 
nothing about it. It is somewhat difficult to those who know 



208 

something about it, and particularly difficult to those who know most 
about it. There was never more difficulty in making laws, than in 
making laws which will sustain the rights of the people, secure 
good service, and assure fair profits to honest investors in the 
public utilities. It has taken a long time to get started at this 
problem and will take a long time to finish it. Probably it will 
never be completed. Mistakes may have been made and likely 
others will be made. When they become evident they will in time 
be corrected. But the work progresses with a disposition to be 
just and a determination to be successful. The progress does 
credit to the people and proves the worth of popular government. 

The leading railroad officials are glad because they do not have 
to engage in the miserable business that was once expected of 
them. The railroad business has become respectable. The public 
is being better served. Individual rights are more regarded. Claims 
are more honestly adjusted. Securities are safer. A moral rather 
than an immoral influence flows from the new situation. It edu- 
cates the mass in moral sense and in respect for law, to know 
that democracy can deal as justly and as effectually with rail- 
roads owned by individual stockholders as monarchy manages the 
royal roads of other lands. There is satisfaction and hope, promise 
and patriotism in it. 

The same thing is going on as to gas and electric light, and tele- 
phone and telegraph, and trolley, and all public service corpora- 
tions. It is going on, too, as to the men who have thought of 
taking possession of the world supply of commodities which the 
whole world needs. There is nothing more difficult in law-making 
than in so arranging that the combined power shall not be used for 
private advantage but only for the common good, and without 
thwarting genius and discouraging enterprise. In a democracy 
with such a domain, such resources, such consummate ingenuity, 
energy and ambition as we have in the United States, it is a matter 
which claims and is having the transcendent genius of the country. 
Nothing more heartening was done at Runnymede, or at old In- 
dependence Hall, or at Saratoga, or at Gettysburg and Appomattox. 

The people, particularly the youth, ought not to be confused by 
the necessities of men who have to make midnight speeches after 
too hearty meals. Philosophers and guides and orators must turn 
their telescopes so as to get a near-to rather than a far-away look 
at the American ship of state. She is not tied up; she is not fall- 
ing apart. She is running fast enough, in an open sea, before a 



209 

fair wind, with plenty of canvas and no lack of coal. She is not 
even rolling; there is no danger of her turning turtle. The lights 
are those of our churches, and schools, and universities. The 
charts have grown out of a thousand years' experience in a world- 
wide struggle for the rights of man. The flags are right side up. 
The ship runs into a bit of a breeze and into a fog now and then ; 
but the captains and the mates are experienced skippers in political 
seas. The sailors scrap once in a while, as all good sailors do, 
but there is not one of them who would not fight for the ship. 
The passengers are cheerful, and tolerant, and expectant, capable 
of making the rules that are needed, and ready to be restrained by 
them. Of course there are a few excited people wanting some- 
thing and talking much, but even they do not feel as badly as they 
pretend. The good ship is a sight for the whole world to behold 
and fortunate are the people who journey in her. She is the 
staunchest vessel, with the surest charts, the finest lights, the full- 
est larder, the fairest company, and upon the noblest mission, that 
ever traversed any sea. 



RURAL SUPERVISION IN NEW YORK 



RURAL SUPERVISION IN NEW YORK 1 

With the beginning of 1912 a new and rather radical scheme for 
the supervision of the rural schools, that is all schools outside of 
the cities and the villages of five thousand inhabitants, went into 
operation in the State of New York. The controlling idea of this 
new plan of rural supervision is "that it is time for the " rural 
school problem " to be dissolved in the proposition that the country 
schools are to be organized and supervised as completely as the city 
schools. I am glad to respond to the request of the Educational 
Review that I shall say something about the features of this plan. 

First, it is well to say a word about the alleged plan which it 
has supplanted. The Legislature of 1812 passed an act (a) creat- 
ing the office of State Superintendent of Common Schools; (b) 
providing for the election of three town commissioners in each 
town at the annual town meeting, whose duty it should be to have 
charge of the State school moneys apportioned to the town, to 
divide the town into separate school districts so as to accommodate 
all the families as well as might be, and generally to represent the 
State in looking after the school interests of the town; (c) pro- 
viding for the election at each town meeting of not to exceed six 
other persons who with the town commissioners should constitute a 
board of town school inspectors, who were required to examine and 
license teachers, inspect the schools, and report to the local trustees 
on the proficiency of the schools; and (d) providing for the elec- 
tion of school trustees at the district meeting in each district, who 
were required to build and maintain the schoolhouse and employ 
the teacher. 

The essential provisions and the thought of this act have con- 
tinued in operation without interruption for an even hundred 
years. The titles of the supervising officers and the units of 
territory they supervised were changed several times because of 
dissatisfaction with something done, or because it was thought 
some reform might be effected, or because a political party gained 
the power to put some of its opponents out and some of its 
partisans in by means of a reorganization ; but the idea that the 
rural schools should be looked after by lay rather than profes- 
sional officers, who were not required to possess, and were often 



iWritten for the Educational Review and published in the February 1912 
number. 

213 



214 

actually without, any substantial qualifications for supervising the 
teaching in the schools, has been in operation for a century. They 
exercised in a general way the authority of the State over the 
schools of a town, a county, or half of a county; they were 
chosen on political tickets at general elections ; they were very 
dependent upon politics, and many of them became wheels in the 
political machinery of the State. 

Of course this gave the old plan a hard and fast hold upon the 
common thought of the people. To be sure, many excellent officers 
were chosen, and some without much fitness at the beginning be- 
came measurably efficient; but aspiration for the places was not 
limited by fitness ; parties regarded the places not only as legiti- 
mate political plunder, but made the tenure of the men who held 
them contingent upon subordination to party leaders and activity 
in the party organization. The scheme worked very well indeed 
for many years, and was doubtless the only one possible in the 
early days when there was no such thing as professional school 
supervision either in city or country, and before politics had 
developed so many masterful artists ; but it came to work very 
badly as school supervision became more and more an exact science 
and more and more was demanded of the schools. Even that did 
not make its dislodgement easy so long as patriots wanted places 
and the political captains in the county committees and the legis- 
latures needed lieutenants, and so long as it was not difficult to 
make many people believe that their " rights " to elect their own 
officers would be outraged if the law limited the selection of school 
superintendents to those who could supervise schools, or provided 
for appointing school experts in some other way than by means 
of a caucus and a general election. When a bill providing a better 
way was prepared and introduced in the Legislature by the State 
Education Department, it could hardly muster enough support to 
maintain the respectability of the Department. But we said we 
would take our time for pushing the matter to a conclusion, and 
began a systematic appeal to the public opinion of the State. In 
particular an aggressive agitation was waged in the educational 
and agricultural organizations. Honest objections were answered 
patiently. Subtle ones were exposed. Once more the advantage 
of going directly to the people with a good cause was demon- 
strated. It required more courage to be against the measure in 
the Legislature of 1910 than to be for it in the Legislature of 
1905. In 1910 it became a law, and went into complete operation 
at the beginning of 1912. 



215 

The essential features of this law may be set forth as follows : 
i It practically doubles the number of rural supervisory dis- 
tricts, thus making districts small enough to permit of frequent 
visits to all schools and frequent meetings of teachers for instruc- 
tion and conference without their being away from home over 
night. 

2 It creates a board of school directors in each supervisory dis- 
trict, consisting of two members from each town, chosen at the 
general election, whose sole and only duty is to appoint a super- 
intendent of schools. The tenure of the superintendent is five 
years, and he has a salary of $1200 paid by the State and also 
has his expenses up to $300 audited and paid by the State. The 
salary and the maximum of expenses may be increased by the 
towns in the supervisory district through the action of the town 
supervisors. The manner of appointing the superintendent was 
the most difficult feature of the whole matter. Many methods 
were considered and this one finally chosen because it harmonizes 
with the method of appointment in the cities, and it was thought 
that, in view of the fact that it centralizes responsibility in a board 
which has no other power, would go quite as far as any other 
method could to remove the appointment from the influence of 
politics and give the superintendent needed independence. 

3 The board may appoint the superintendent only from the 
eligibles approved by the State Education Department. To be 
eligible one must hold a certificate of the State Department con- 
ferring the right to teach for life in any school in the State, when 
employed, without further examination, and must pass an exam- 
ination, held by the Commissioner of Education, in the teaching 
of agriculture. This provision about the agricultural examination 
was not in the bill as originally prepared; it was inserted on 
motion of a member when the measure was under consideration in 
the lower house; but as it was surely harmless and possibly help- 
ful, no effort was made to repeal or eliminate it. The school 
directors to the number of about 1800 were chosen at the general 
election in November 1910. The people were urged to choose 
two good men in each town without regard to partisanship. This 
was generally regarded; in some cases each of the leading parties 
named one man. Immediately after their election the directors 
were asked by the Commissioner of Education to rise above all 
partisanship, to refrain from committing themselves to any candi- 
date until after full consideration of all possible candidates by the 
board, and if necessary to repel candidates and look far for the 



2l6 

best superintendent they could find for their district. The law 
required the boards to meet, but only for organization and dis- 
cussion, on the third Tuesday of May 191 1, and to meet for the 
appointment of a superintendent on the third Tuesday of August 
191 1. The terms of office of the district superintendents chosen 
in August last will expire July 13, 1916. Their terms are made to 
expire at the end of a school year; thereafter the regular term 
of all district superintendents will begin August 1st, which is the 
beginning of a school year. District superintendents will be 
chosen on the third Tuesday in June in 19 16, and thereafter every 
five years. Members of the boards of school directors will be 
chosen in succeeding years. Nearly all boards appointed superin- 
tendents without friction on the day named in the law. A few 
boards could not agree at once and adjourned to a later day, but 
have since made appointments. Opposition to the system has prac- 
tically disappeared. All are now disposed to give it a thorough 
trial. Candidates rustled around a good deal to secure support. 
One who tried and failed to qualify decided that the law invaded 
the Constitutions of both the State and Nation, but up to date 
the court has disagreed with him. On the whole, the appoint- 
ments of superintendents have gone very smoothly. There are 
207 supervisory districts. Of the 206 superintendents appointed 
at this writing, 62 are college graduates, 92 are graduates of State 
normal schools, 35 hold state life certificates, and 28 hold teachers 
permanent certificates. All have had pedagogical training and 
teaching experience. 

4 The Education Law provides : 

Section 394. District superintendents not to engage in other 
business. A district superintendent of schools shall devote his 
whole time to the performance of the duties of his office and shall 
not engage in any other occupation or profession. Such time as 
shall not necessarily be devoted by a district superintendent of 
schools to the performance of the clerical and administrative work 
of his office shall be devoted to the visitation and inspection of the 
schools maintained in his supervisory district. 

The law is very explicit in the powers which it confers and the 
limitations which it places upon the superintendents. They are 
also subject to the rules and directions of the Commissioner of 
Education and are removable by him for immoral conduct, incom- 
petency, or neglect of duty. As the directors may fill a vacancy 
at once, there is less objection to creating one than when election 
was by the people. The superintendents have the power to re- 



217 

form and reorganize the school system in all the rural parts of the 
State. They may require hygienic and properly equipped school- 
houses. They may condemn schoolhouses and outbuildings and 
require others to be built. If they do not abate nuisances, they 
may be abated as nuisances themselves. They may require addi- 
tional furnishings, and see that whatever a school needs is pro- 
vided. They are to travel about among the schools continually, 
looking after the program and the morale and the teaching. They 
are to hold conferences of teachers by towns, or two towns, as may 
be convenient. They are to have similar conferences with trustees. 
They are to get the people of the different districts together now 
and then and agitate for better schoolhouses and more attractive 
grounds, for better wages, better teaching, and more attractive and 
efficient schools. They are to do all that a city superintendent 
may do, and possibly more than he can do, to make the schools of 
their districts uniformly excellent. They have full authority to do 
this, and they will not be allowed to neglect the very important 
business that has been committed to them. They have been com- 
missioned to lead the educational work of their districts and they 
must execute their commissions. 

This may seem like strong language. Some people require 
strong language. It is better not to have to use it, but a great 
undertaking can not be allowed to fail, or partially fail, because 
of dearth of determination or lack of strong language. The dis- 
trict superintendents have been supplied with blanks calling for 
information concerning every interest of the schools, and will be 
required to make a detailed report to the Third Assistant Com- 
missioner of Education, at the close of every week, of their work 
on each day of the preceding week, to the end that no interest of 
any school shall be overlooked. 

Of course, the new system is to be on trial. The superintend- 
ents are on trial. So are the State Education Department and the 
Commissioner of Education. All intend to make good. With 
modern means of getting about and the present-day facilities for 
communication, there is no need of assuming that the " country 
school problem " is an insoluble thing. If the states will put state 
money, and state authority, and the experience of their educational 
leaders into the business, there may be just as good schools in the 
country as in the city, and perhaps even a little better. And when 
there are it will make farms more valuable, farmers more pros- 
perous and happier, and states stronger. 



CITY SCHOOLS ENTITLED TO A GOVERNMENT 
OF THEIR OWN 



CITY SCHOOLS ENTITLED TO A GOVERNMENT OF 
THEIR OWN 1 

Albany, February 5, 19 12 
Editor, Union and Advertiser 

Rochester, N. Y. 
Dear sir: 

The inclosed editorial note from your paper, copied in the 
Albany Knickerbocker-Press, concerning the recommendation of 
my latest annual report that the statutes relating to schools in 
cities be transferred from the city charters to the Education Law, 
is so fair that I am impelled to depart from my ordinary custom 
and say that it seems to me that the recommendation does not 
make itself clear to you. 

The question whether it is well " to transfer control of city 
school systems to the State " is not involved in the recommenda- 
tion. The proposition that the State should take control of the 
schools as it has taken control of the penal, reformatory, and 
charitable institutions, would surely be absurd. How much popu- 
lar and how much professional control, how much local and how 
much State control, there shall be over the schools may well be 
determined by resulting efficiency, and as to that experience must 
be the guide. Where popular sentiment is keen and rational about 
the schools, not much outside control is desirable and of course it 
is necessary to pursue the policies which will quicken and guide 
popular sentiment. Where the sentiment is not keen and where 
the condition of the schools is low, the State is not only bound 
to intervene and execute the mandate of the Constitution that " the 
Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a 
system of free common schools, wherein all the children of the 
State may be educated," but I suppose everybody would agree 
that it is the business of the State to make the entire educational 
system of the State as strong and efficient as practicable. And 
probably no one would dissent from the proposition that where 
the money of the State goes, there its authority must go, and that 
State leadership may well be as extensive and forceful as may be 
necessary to upbuild interests that are common to all the people. 



1 Letters addressed to a Rochester newspaper, and reprints of articles printed 
in said paper, upon the control of city school systems. 



222 

But that is not the immediate question and I speak of it only 
because you refer to it. My recommendation neither involves nor 
contemplates any changes in the law except, of course, as future 
experience may make advisable. It proposes only that the school 
statutes relating to the cities shall be taken, just as they are, from 
the city charters and incorporated in the State Education Law. 
The educational system is a state-wide, a universal system. It has 
nothing in common with the diversified plans and methods of mu- 
nicipal government. Cities are only large school districts, the 
people of which are entitled to regulate their own school affairs 
without submitting them to city officers and councils, at least so 
long as they do not break down the system of education which 
the State is required to maintain. 

It has been completely established that school officers in cities 
are not, in law, city officers. Manifestly it is not to the interest 
of the schools to be mixed up with city politics. Then why should 
the people of a city have to procure an amendment to the city 
charter every time they want to improve their schools and why 
should the school laws relating to a city be all stirred up whenever 
the charter is revised? 

My point is that the schools of all the cities would be upon a 
surer footing and educational progress would be more likely, if 
when the schools needed a change in their law they did not have 
to come in conflict with the men who think most about city char- 
ters, and if the men whose functions are to shape the charters did 
not feel free to make sweeping changes in the school laws whenever 
they found it well to make changes in the charters. There is noth- 
ing revolutionary about it : it is only moving in the direction of fur- 
ther separating the common schools from all partisanship. There 
is no purpose to urge it before there is ample time for popular con- 
sideration. But I suspect that it will come after a time, as other 
things do when they are right. 

Thanking you very much for your spirit of fairness concerning 
a suggestion which has not appealed to you, I am 
Very sincerely yours 

A. S. Draper 

Commissioner of Education 



223 

From the Union and Advertiser, Rochester, February 9, 1912 : 

Doctor Draper's position on the school system 

In another column on this page will be found a communication from 
State Commissioner of Education Andrew S. Draper, commenting upon a 
paragraph in an editorial in this paper concerning his annual report. The 
paragraph referred to is as follows : 

Doctor Draper's proposal to transfer control of city school systems 
to the State is too big to be settled within l few months or years. 
It involves such changes that it is sure to arouse great opposition. The 
benefits to be derived from such a move are many, but it is doubtful 
that the cities will willingly relinquish control of their schools. This 
is the first formal proposal of a change that has had but little general 
discussion. It is a matter to be settled by the people and their advisers, 
the educators. If the latter are able to persuade the former that it will 
be to the benefit of the schools to give them over to the control of the 
State, well and good, the change will be made. But whatever the 
advantages of such a school system, we are of opinion that they are 
not sufficient to overcome very soon the satisfaction of the people with 
the present condition of things. 

Doctor Draper's complimentary references to the fairness of The Union 
and Advertiser are highly appreciated. It is pleasing to know that our 
fairness is seen, even where we may have been mistaken as to the meaning 
of a proposition which we did not accept as valid. We are, however, not 
entirely at fault in mistaking Doctor Draper's proposal to transfer the laws 
controlling the government of city school systems from the city charters 
to the State Education Law as a proposal to transfer the control of the 
schools from the cities to the State. Our error, if there be any on our 
part, arises from the language of the summary or abstract, as it is called, 
of the report of the Education Department to the Legislature. This sum- 
mary is official and upon the subject under discussion quotes as follows: 
" The law regulating the local control and management of the schools of 
the several cities of the State should be taken out of the city charters and 
should be incorporated in the Education Law." This is declared in the 
summary to be the language of the report itself. It will be seen that the 
word " control " is used in .the report and that we therefore may be par- 
doned if we assumed that Doctor Draper meant that the State should under 
his proposal control the schools. 

But let us consider these words as they stand. If " the law regulating 
the local control and management" of the city schools does control them 
when this law is in the city charter, why will it fail to control them when 
it is transferred to the Education Law? And if the Education Law is 
part of the State law, why, then, does not the State, with this law taken 
from the city charters and incorporated into the Education Lav/, control 
the schools? The next sentence in Doctor Draper's report says: "This 
action may be taken without confusion and without decreasing in the 
slightest the powers now conferred upon local superintendents or boards 
of education." Surely, if the city education law is transferred to the State 



224 

Education Law, the provision giving the powers mentioned will remain 
there. But they will be a part of the State law and they can not then be 
changed by any power but the Legislature. We do not think that Doctor 
Draper will say that a board of education has power to change a State law. 
It seems, therefore, that the control by the city school authorities will be 
present only so long as the State does not change that part of the Educa- 
tion Law which was formerly part of the city charter, that it will extend 
only to the bounds set by the city law as it stood when it was transferred, 
and that it will stop at the point where the city school authorities would 
change the law regarding their schools. 

It will be seen from the foregoing that we had good ground for believ- 
ing that Doctor Draper meant that the State should control the schools. 
If he does not mean this, the language of his report does not clearly indi- 
cate it. We confess that his letter has not made itself entirely clear to us, 
even after some days of consideration. We have not tried here to justify 
our position merely for the sake of contention, but to show that we did not 
assume it without good ground. Doctor Draper seems in his letter of 
explanation to intend his proposition to mean that the city should become 
a school district, as portions of the rural regions are school districts, and 
probably intends that the State control of the schools should be that which 
the State has over the schools in a rural school district. Whether this 
would be desirable or acceptable is, of course, debatable and would require 
more discussion than could be well appended to this comment upon Doctor 
Draper's courteous letter. 

Albany, February ij, ip 12 
Editor, Union and Advertiser 

Rochester, N. Y. 
Dear sir: 

I have your editorial comments upon my letter concerning the 
proposition to transfer education statutes from the city charters to 
the Education Law. 

You seem to think — and this is why I venture to write again 
— that this transfer of school laws from the charters to the Edu- 
cation Law would in some hidden way change the substance of 
the statutes or shift the control of the schools from local to State 
officers. Let me assure you that there is nothing whatever in 
that. The school laws, in whatever form or connection, can be 
made or changed only by the Legislature. Moreover, no one wishes 
such changes. Everybody knows, or ought to know, that the 
more intelligent a community is, and the more aggressive it is about 
having the best schools, the more the state educational officials are 
gratified. And no one can doubt that the more local energy 
there is about schools, the better the schools will be. State over- 
sight may aid local interest where it is weak or ill-advised, 



225 

but it would be absurd to try to substitute State for local manage- 
ment in popular education. No community having really high 
grade schools ever complains about State interference, for the 
double reason that the State does not interfere in such communi- 
ties, and they are not jealous of State aid or criticism but glad to 
have them. It is the community with low grade schools that is 
disturbed by that oversight which both the laws and sound policy 
require the State to extend over it. 

My contention is that the management of the schools of a city 
is no proper or legal function of a city government; that a city 
government is not vested with this function and is not chosen with 
reference to it; that such management is vested in an organization 
specially provided for and chosen for the purpose ; that the schools 
of all the cities constitute a part of that State system of education 
which the Constitution enjoins and which all the people cherish; 
and that therefore all the statutes relating to schools may more 
properly be incorporated in the State Education Law than in the 
city charters. 

My reason for urging that this be done is more than abstract 
or academic: it is that the schools may be separated as far as 
possible from municipal politics; that it may not be easy for those 
who think most about the charters and municipal affairs to revise 
the school laws whenever the charters are revised ; and that the 
school laws may be modified when necessary without arousing 
those who think of city business more than of schools. 

The territory of every city is, in legal and administrative contem- 
plation, only a big school district. The people in the country school 
districts do not have less but more control over their schools than 
the people in a big city. Do not misunderstand what I am urging. 
I am for the people of a city having all the control over the schools 
in their city that their intelligence and patriotism will dispose them 
to exercise. The only consideration to be regarded is the uniform 
efficiency of the State system of education. That will be highest 
where the people are intelligent enough and concerned enough 
about their schools to pay sharp and rational attention to them. 
The real troubles in cities grow out of the fact that the people 
are indifferent or are so numerous that they can not meet together 
and settle school policies and choose school officers. But they 
should come as near managing school matters as they can, and all 
the schools should constitute a part of the State system of edu- 
cation and be managed by both State and local representatives of 



226 

the people chosen for that particular purpose. In no event should 
the schools be left to the control of city officers and councils who 
have no special knowledge of the intricacies of school administra- 
tion and who are not chosen with reference to that duty. 
Very sincerely yours 

A. S. Draper 

Commissioner of Education 



ANCIENT VERSUS MODERN LEARNING IN 
FREE SCHOOLS 

[227] 



ANCIENT VERSUS MODERN LEARNING IN FREE 
SCHOOLS 1 
Mr Toastmaster: 

It is a greater pleasure than you may think to break bread and 
mix observations with the alumni of Colgate University, because 
your university was the first to confer upon me an honorary 
degree. It was a surprise indeed, and I can not help thinking that 
it must have required courage, twenty-three years ago, to hang 
your reputation for caution upon so uncertain a shoot. 

I have been delighted by the remarks of President Bryan. I 
knew he could talk well, but it is a satisfaction to hear him tell so 
confidently of the prosperity and the outlook of Colgate University. 
To confess to you the truth, I have come to be apprehensive when 
up-state college presidents come to Albany and make midnight 
speeches after late dinners. This winter they have been violating 
the rules of the game and saying amusing things in serious ways, 
rather than serious things in amusing ways. Your great neighbor 
of Syracuse University did so recently, and the other evening the 
scholarly president of Hamilton College, your " dearest foe," as 
Governor Hughes would say, did the same thing. Some of the 
very great brethren need the fraternal admonition of the guild. 

President Stryker never goes around the corner to say things. 
Bluntness is his long suit, whatever that may mean. He gives no 
quarter in discussion. He loves intellectual combat. Then he 
must have a " combatee." So he invents one. He exemplifies his 
contention that Grecian learning is the fruitful mother of imagina- 
tion. His imagination creates adversaries so that his gladiatorial 
arm may hammer Grecian culture into them. But^f he gives no 
quarter, neither does he ask any. And so when he says for the 
twentieth time that "the heavy hand of educational authority in 
this State is set against the classical studies," he will be glad to 
see a hat in the ring and may at least appreciate the courage that 
throws it there. 

There can be no such thing as the heavy hand of educational 
authority turned against the classical studies. It wouldn't be 
heavy; it wouldn't have authority. It would be like Lincoln's 
steamboat with a big whistle and a little boiler, that couldn't 



1 Remarks at Colgate University dinner, at the Hampton Hotel, Albany, 
March 15, 1912. 

229 



2 30 

whistle when it ran and couldn't run when it whistled. The hand 
of all authority in America is heavy or light as it is supported by 
public sentiment. The hand of educational leadership is heavy 
or light as it is upheld by educational opinion. There is no opinion 
so unfettered as educational opinion. It is so jealous of its free- 
dom that it sometimes goes astray. But it never supports author- 
ity that does not seek aid from all the learning of the world. It 
resents any exclusion of any knowledge. It would ridicule any 
pretended educational authority that did not recognize the influ- 
ence of the ancient tongues upon modern speech, and did not lay 
hold of whatever there was in ancient civilizations that might 
enrich the civilizations that are or are to be. 

All of us have pride in the college that has held aloft the lights 
of .classical learning in Central New York for an hundred years. 
And while it is a little hard to have our minds distracted by the 
implication that we can not think very straight or speak very well, 
because we do not do it in Greek, when we are trying to think 
of nice things to say at the centennial celebration at Hamilton next 
summer, still we shall think as best we can and speak with genuine 
feeling when we present our felicitations to a college that has 
trained so many great teachers, and preachers, and leaders of men, 
and that seems content to hold to the plan and the faith by which 
it has done it. 

There is room enough for such a college among all the educa- 
tional institutions of this State. It is only a question as to whether 
those who love her most think that it is good college policy to 
adhere to. If they do, I shall be rather glad of it, and whether 
they do or not there is no one who will not wish them well. But 
whatever they do, no authoritative hand is against the ancient 
languages in that or any other school of the State. All students 
who want them must have them; all professions or vocations that 
really need them must be urged to have them ; and they must be 
distinctly encouraged for their historical, cultural, and disciplinary 
value, by those who would give balance and finish to education. 

But it had better be said, and with all plainness, that our civili- 
zation is no longer in Greece, or Rome, or Gaul, or even Britain; 
that we are not living in the first, the tenth, or the eighteenth 
century; that the streams of learning are now gathering in many 
high places, trickling down many mountain sides, making mighty 
rivers and boundless seas, and sending back their distilled dews to 
irrigate and fructify the intelligence of the whole world. We are 



231 



in a free country where men and women have everything to study 
and are going to study what they please. It is the business of 
State educational authority to try to provide them with whatever 
branches of study they will accept and with whatever educational 
helps will uplift the vocations which they are to follow. The 
State may aid but not force their choice. Our education unfolds 
rather rationally. There is a higher law about it than any laid 
down in resolutions of faculties and educational conventions. The 
thing will work its way out if all kinds of work have an even 
chance. The State of New York represents so many people and 
so many interests that it is not free to do what a college on the 
hill at Clinton may do by itself. The State must recognize the 
diversity of learning, the differing situations, the equal rights of 
all learning and of all people. Of course it must encourage any 
study that cultures people, and certainly any study that helps 
people to think accurately, as the study of the classics undoubtedly 
does ; but quite as clearly it must encourage study that leads people 
to work skilfully with their hands ; and quite as certainly it must 
abstain from destroying the necessary balance between the em- 
ployments of the people, from making misfits in life work, and 
from lessening the productivity and upsetting the equilibrium of 
the State itself. 

A Greek scholar and particularly a teacher of Greek, like every 
other scholar or teacher, is likely to be obsessed by the subject in 
which he is expert. That is his purpose and business in life. The 
State encourages him to make the most of his subject, but the 
State can not be obsessed by his subject because he is. Greek is 
entitled to no exclusive privileges in American education. It is a 
liberal education to be an accomplished Greek scholar, but one no 
longer has to be a Greek scholar to possess a liberal education. 
In a rapid rise followed by a hardly less rapid decline, the old 
Greeks made their little land a veritable storehouse of art. Their 
coins, pottery, sculpture, and structures illustrate an amazing, if 
narrow, intellectual development. But what other large gifts have 
they made to our modern intellectual estate? 

Has it been in literature, or philosophy, or oratory? Not 
broadly so ; a few good specimens, but only a few, have been 
valued highly, and with justice. Has it been in science? No; their 
savants knew less of chemistry, and of physics, and of the heavenly 
bodies, than do the children in our schools. Has it been in music ? 
No. Has it been in the drama ? Not strongly ; we have adopted a 



232 

few plots but there has been much to forget. Has it been in words 
they have added to our English speech? Some will claim it, but 
the Saxon and Norman trunk is bigger and stronger and nobler 
than the classical sprigs that have been grafted upon it. Has it 
been in ennobling sports, in manly heroisms for human rights? 
Not overwhelmingly. Has it been in exploration and expansion? 
No, they were not navigators, and when they expanded a little 
they could not hold on. Did they inspire religious progress? 
They worshipped idols ; their religion, if it may be called a religion, 
was mere superstitious mysticism : it even now degrades great 
empires. Look at Russia even now only half emancipated from 
the idolatry of the ancient Greeks. When Paul, in the midst of 
all the altars they had set up to hideous and brutal gods upon Mars 
hill, found one which they had erected to an " unknown god " in 
order to placate some monster they had not yet discovered, and 
declared him unto the Athenians, he announced a religion that has 
done more for intellectual as well as moral progress than any of 
those old Greeks, with all their superstition and imagination, were 
ever able to think of. Has it been in statecraft, in upbuilding 
self-government, in enlarging political freedom in the world? No, 
one-fifth of them owned the other four-fifths ; they had no grasp 
upon liberty and their " republics " were nothing but a name ; the 
people who lived in the forests and upon the waters of the far 
away northlands and compounded a new nation in Britain a 
thousand years later and a thousand years ago, and then another 
new nation in America in modern times, opened the highways of 
political self-government and of human and social progress with- 
out any help from the peoples, even though they had more polite 
accomplishments, who before the dawn of the Christian era dwelt 
upon the shores of the blue Mediterranean sea. 

Modern civilization owes more to the Romans than to the 
Greeks. They were travelers and they left landmarks, but the fact 
remains that the ideals of the best of them and the military power 
of all of them had to be overthrown before the road was open for 
the advance of modern freedom and intelligence. 

In these days of prolific scholarship and of much publication 
there is, moreover, no such ignorance of the ancients as classical 
scholars very commonly assume. There is no such paralysis of 
thinking and of expression among those who are educated in the 
modern tongues alone, as classical experts seem to think that they 
perceive. Nor is there such exclusive disciplinary value in Greek 



233 

and Latin over more modern phases of serious study, as a few 
would have us think. It is saying nothing against classical scholar- 
ship to declare that the world has reached a stage of intellectual 
productivity when familiarity with ancient tongues — to say noth- 
ing of a slight acquaintance soon forgotten — is no longer the 
sum of all culture or the substance of all scholarship. 

The ancient world was all on the shores of the Mediterranean : 
it was imprisoned, very ignorant, and withal very content. The 
modern world knows no geographical limits and it is free, aspiring, 
and potential. Christianity has worked the change. One may 
hesitate about some of the beliefs of its disciples, but no one with 
a true heart can dissent from its spirit, and no one with an intelli- 
gent mind can deny its results. It broke its way over Europe and 
penetrated Asia. It was a thing of faith and therefore aggressive 
and unyielding. It forced revolutions and reformations and it 
started crusades and migrations. It discovered America. It estab- 
lished new nations, freer forms of government, and larger human 
opportunity, in the Old World and the New. That in turn opened 
the roads for all phases of intellectual progress. Those roads 
have been and are being well traveled. There is now a red, white 
and blue flag at each of the extremities of the earth. Three years 
ago a daring American sailor planted the flag of freedom and of 
. opportunity at the north pole. Three months ago a gallant son 
of the Vikings planted the beautiful flag of Norway with the 
Christian's cross upon it at the south pole. The physical world 
has been conquered: now it will be studied. Modern schools have 
made astounding discoveries in the occult sciences which only show 
how little the secrets of that world are known ; those secrets are 
going to be intensively studied. The knowledge so obtained is 
going to be applied to the convenience which will further uplift the 
life of the people: that exacts study. The worlds of thought and 
feeling are to be much further explored; literature and philosophy 
are yet to have a more perfect flower and a more nourishing fruit- 
age; the schools will inspire the genius of some of their boys and 
girls to do it. Family life, community responsibilities, and the 
scope and functions of government are all to be more thoroughly 
studied that they may be better adjusted. The soil we live on, the 
mountains and rivers and seas, the animals — tamed and wild — 
the physical life of the people, the care and use of the world's re- 
sources, the natural rights of men, the expansion of knowledge, the 
betterment of feelings, the processes which will enable and induce 
people to make the most of themselves, demand the utmost serious- 



234 

ness of study. There are no limits to the phases of modern study, 
and there are going to be no ancient limitations upon the freedom 
of the New York schools. 

In other words, the schools are so full of subjects that are of 
both cultural and potential value that the right to exclusive worth 
will no longer be conceded to Greek and Latin; they will be val- 
uated in experience and will have to depend upon their worth to 
the world. There will be no exclusion of studies one way or the 
other. Students and schools will have the opportunity to choose. 
There will not be many more preferential tariffs in academics, not 
much more "thus saith the Lord" about what youngsters out of 
the elementary schools must study. Colleges will provide what 
they have the means to supply; will derand what they think well 
from freshmen ; will exact such study for academic degrees as they 
have the courage to enforce. Students will take it, or let it alone 
and go elsewhere for what they want. And uniformity between 
colleges is neither possible nor desirable. Students will be credited 
with what they do, and institutions will be judged by what they 
are. And the worth of graduates and of schools will be estab- 
lished, not on the basis of so many parts of Greek or chemistry or 
logic, but because they have shown so much of character, and 
power, and accomplishment. 

The trend is not for aristocracy but democracy in education. 
Students who go to college are not out of the same manner of 
homes or the same kind of schools as those who went to college 
fifty years ago. Their number has increased many fold. There 
are no longer any rungs missing from the educational ladder in 
America, as is the case in other lands. And that ladder not only 
stands upon the ground but its head is among the stars. All have 
equal rights upon it. That fact is enlarging, and multiplying, and 
diversifying, and quickening our colleges. It is this very thing 
that is giving us the most comprehensive and efficient, the most 
persuasive and adaptable, system of education in the world. 

It is the business of every factor in the State's system of educa- 
tion to give every aid it can to every man and wot an, and to the 
State itself. That will be done best by schools developing individ- 
uality, if they cooperate. Cooperation is as vital to each school as 
to the educational system. Meanness defeats itself in education 
even more than in other things. The institution that is strong in 
itself will be yet stronger when it helps other institutions of what- 
ever grade, and all good interests of whatever kind. Universities 
and colleges culture people by the use of books, but quite as much 



235 

by training them in doing; and by training them for commercial 
and manual employments as well as for professional vocations. 

And it is the interest of the State and the function of State edu- 
cational authority to aim at a fair equilibrium in the educational 
activities of the people. The State is not concerned about idlers 
whom it does not have to support, no matter how much they pos- 
sess or what they know. It is concerned about some balance of 
vocations among its workers, about the work of all kinds being 
done that it needs to have done, and about its workers being fitted 
for the work that they can do best. Whatever makes the most of 
the world's work makes the most of the world's men and women. 
Workers are about all who count and workers of every class do 
count. It is wide of the mark to say that men and women are of 
more account than wood and iron. Of course they are, the poor 
as well as the rich, the workers more than the idlers. We are for 
culturing all of them. People are cultured by their self-activities. 
The only way to make more of men and women is by putting all 
possible knowledge and all practicable intelligence into what they 
do. Then the State is going to have every conceivable kind of 
school, even agricultural schools and schools that have been sneer- 
ingly called " fine blacksmiths' shops." There will be more rather 
than fewer engineering colleges, and more rather than less applica- 
tions of the sciences to the industries in both the secondary and 
primary schools. The educational system will have to teach men 
and women how to make more money in their shops and on their 
lands, and how to make homes and institutions that may easily 
make more of men and women. Everything will not have to be 
taught everywhere; nor will everyone have to engage in every- 
thing; but one who can not enter into something that demands 
energy and have sympathy with everything that is good will be in 
danger of going to seed in American education. 

Let Hamilton College follow her own judgment, and every man 
of the schools, whether his work and his thought accord with her 
plans and policies or not, will admire her courage and wish her 
well. But let us work together a little more closely and under- 
standingly. Let us give over thinking that the State, any authority 
or any influential factor in it, is against this or that in education. 
All will have to live and help others to live to the best advantage. 
The State is for freedom, for the equal chance for everyone in 
education ; it is for every study ; and for the survival of what does 
the most for the character, intelligence, and thrift of its people, 
and therefore for the stability and advancement of the State itself. 



THE PLACE OF SARATOGA IN THE REVO- 
LUTIONARY WAR 

[237] 



THE PLACE OF SARATOGA IN THE REVOLUTIONARY 

WAR 1 

The foreplanning which arranged that this meeting of the New 
York State Historical Society should be held at Saratoga, and 
provided for the discussion of all phases of that New York cam- 
paign in the Revolution which culminated at this place with such 
decisive triumph for the patriot arms, was patriotically and thought- 
fully done. In thus illustrating the doings of our fathers and por- 
traying to some extent the cost of our institutions, we are doing 
quite as much as we can do in any other way to help on popular 
education. It is really a very great pleasure, a sort of patriotic 
holiday, to turn from the routine and details of the Education De- 
partment, and revel in that unparalleled and inspiring inheritance 
which we of the State of New York have in both the civic and 
military history of the American Revolution. 

The preliminary situations, the strategy, the fighting, the 
heroisms, the chivalry, and the tremendous results of the battle of 
Saratoga, are fascinating to all students of history, and enticingly 
so to all lovers of America. My pencil would skip across the pages 
if it were to trace Britain's comprehensive plan of campaign and 
the vehement opposition of the patriots ; if it were to follow the 
deliberate, haughty, grim advance of Burgoyne from the North ; 
if it were to chuckle over the failure of Sir Henry Clinton to come 
up from the lower Hudson ; if it were to glory over the scattering 
of St Leger and his Indians by those gallant old Dutchmen, Nich- 
olas Herkimer and Peter Gansevoort, with a handful of regulars, 
supported by the doughty farmers of the Mohawk valley ; and if it 
were to celebrate the fast gathering of more farmers, the gallant 
earnestness of other regular troops, the untiring sagacity and the 
sure-shooting of Daniel Morgan and his riflemen, the voluntary 
and perhaps the frenzied soldiership of Benedict Arnold, and the 
overgenerous moral support and magnanimous chivalry of Philip 
Schuyler, which, taken together, and in spite of the meanness and 
cowardly stupidity of Gates, forced, for the first time, a British 
army to ground its arms to Continental troops. 

But the affair to which I am invited to make a contribution is no 



1 Address before the New York State Historical Association at its annual 
meeting, September 1912. 

239 



240 

such hilarious revel. My task here is to measure the importance of 
Saratoga in the American Revolution and therefore in the revolu- 
tionary history of the world. No one will doubt the difficulties of 
doing that in a brief paper, for it can not be done without a serious 
study of all the leading men and the large events associated with 
the Revolution, in the fields of politics, of diplomacy, and of battle, 
or without a good understanding of the subsequent influence of 
American independence upon the progress of constitutional free- 
dom in America and throughout the world. But happily we may 
avoid details and we may ignore the common disputes over minor 
facts. We are to discern the main events upon a widespread field 
and see which looms the largest in forcing culminations and in cre- 
ating law and security and opportunity in the world. 

A moment or two for a foreword will not be misspent. Doubt- 
less it was settled when the stars were hung in the heavens that a 
new and independent nation would be compounded in America, 
but it had to come about through thinking and doing, by occur- 
rences and events. And it is hard to realize the differences and 
dissensions among men and women and the minor happenings that 
give trend to vital history, when it is set forth so glibly on a few 
pages in a book. 

The English masses knew little and cared little about men and 
events in America. The colonists were not at all united in wishing 
independence. The common people of England and America were 
homogeneous enough. It is quite true that there had been much 
contention and not a little fighting among the nations of the Old 
World about their possessions in the New World, and there had 
been more or less maneuvering about governmental relations and 
the royal prerogatives, and there had been abuses which had stirred 
protests, but nothing occurred to make an armed resistance inevi- 
table until the King put away the judicial and patriarchal attitude 
of the crown, became an unscrupulous partisan, manipulated Par- 
liament, and toyed with the rights and freedoms of English subjects 
without the actual knowledge of the English people. 

Only a half dozen years before the accession of George the 
Third the northern colonies had held a convention at Albany to 
form a union to fight the Indians without any thought of revolu- 
tionary issues with the mother country ; and only a year or two be- 
fore his accession Yankee continentals and English grenadiers and 
Scotch highlanders had marched and died together to make sure 
that the British power and the great things that it stood for should 



241 

long be dominant in the government of America. In a half dozen 
years after he became king, this unscrupulous, half-educated poli- 
tician had stirred a revolt in America which compelled his complete 
recession, and in fifteen years, learning nothing by experience, he 
had forced a revolution which recession could not placate and arms 
could mot suppress. 

In his long reign of sixty years this head of the English Church 
and boss in English politics had plenty of time to go N stark mad, 
and the subtle processes which brought the noble Empire nearer to 
overthrow than she ever was before or ever has been since were 
amply sufficient to make him so. But until long after his throne 
had lost its noblest possessions, his mind was as keen and method- 
ical as his purposes were grovelling and insatiable. Determined that 
the saying of his father that " Ministers are the real kings " should 
no longer be true, and intent upon ruling as well as reigning, he 
drove the strong men, including the great Chatham, from his cab- 
inet and assumed the personal direction of the affairs of his king- 
dom. Ignorant of the mighty undercurrents of English history and 
the stubborn virtues of his people, his conception of government 
could go no further than the dominance of a clique, and his meth- 
ods for assuring that could toot rise above bribing the vices which 
create the only vital needs for exercising the forces of government 
at all. He bought boroughs ; was up at daybreak to scan the tally 
sheets of the votes in Parliament on the night before; and carried 
his ends by favor, patronage, and money. And the ends he carried 
forced the dismemberment of his kingdom. Lecky has said that the 
course of George the Third, during the latter part of the American 
war " was as criminal as the acts which brought Charles the First 
to the scaffold." 

His ends were certainly idle and his methods ran amuck in 
America. The English colonies in New England were peopled by as 
true Englishmen as England ever had. They had come from 
the northeastern counties where faith was refined by persecu- 
tions ,and martyrs grew in the natural order. The Dutch of New 
York had inherited somewhat less severe views of life, rather 
more aptness at commercial progress, and just as hardy character, 
with quite as strong a love for liberty and for learning, from a 
people who, through valorous experiences, had developed these 
qualities in preeminent degree. Hardly less may be said of all the 
other peoples in the thirteen colonies of Great Britain in America. 
Of course there were good and bad, learned a^nd unlearned, indus- 



A 



242 

trious and shiftless, among these people, but, all in all, they were 
the most homogeneous, unselfish, and aspiring believers in God and 
lovers of liberty in the world. Life in the remote wilderness, 
encompassed by dangerous beasts and savage men, had given edge 
and point to the great attributes they brought across the sea. The 
great body of them met all the demands of the new manner of life 
with unsurpassed acuteness, and their exceptional men responded 
to the highest demands of intellectual, civic, ajnd military leadership 
with genuineness, adroitness and forcefulness that have surprised 
the great men of the world. There was hardly a man among them 
who could not manage a boat, test all the qualities of a horse, or get 
the utmost out of the possibilities of a rifle, and when it came to 
statecraft and diplomacy, their leaders showed that there was 
nothing wanting. And not I alone but the leading English writers- 
of English history say that these people saved English freedom 
against this English king. 

When he and his clique pushed their demands and asserted their 
control across the lines that had been established in the great char- 
ters of English liberty, it was natural that the Englishmen in New 
England at the north should be the quickest to resent and the first 
to resist. They did it with remarkable unanimity of sentiment and 
surprising energy of action. Of course the King had his adherents 
in America as well as in England, and more of them than we now 
commonly think, but there was no such division into parties, no 
such fooling or debauching of so many people as in England. Of 
course the middle and the southern colonies had their own peculiar- 
ities and their own interests to influence their courses. Of course 
this and that people were quickened most by the special consider- 
ations that appealed very directly to them; of course the people of 
a region responded most completely to a danger that came directly 
to their doors ; of course in their weariness, and their poverty, and 
their exhaustion, they relaxed when the menace recoiled or the im- 
mediate campaign was over; and of course the doings and even 
the honor of an inexperienced Confederation fell into confusion; 
but above it all looms the great fact that they played both a waiting 
and a fighting game so adroitly and so valorously that British armies 
had to withdraw, independence had to be admitted, and the English 
government itself had to be radically recast. And the great turning 
point of it all was right here at Saratoga. 

From a strictly military point of view nothing so important hap- 
pened in the long and slow course of the Revolution as the sur- 
render of Burgoyne's army. The significance which it had in the 



243 

British mind is clear enough when one remembers that the head 
and front of the American revolt seemed to be in New England 
and New York; that if this great northern revolution could be 
quelled the rest would appear easy; that the old warpath of the 
Indians and of the English and French, along the Hudson river, 
and Lake Champlain, was the natural, short, level, and easy chan- 
nel of communication between the British army and navy at New 
York City and the loyal English colonies in Canada. It is particu- 
larly significant when one sees the careful and comprehensive pre- 
liminary arrangements for the campaign by which three armies 
were to converge at Albany, scattering death and destruction along 
the roads, and leaving no doubt of ending all resistance by the 
time their forces came together and crushed their enemy in the vor- 
tex. It was a great plan and it was to be executed by veteran 
troops with plenty of Hessian and Indian allies led by the best offi- 
cers sent to America in the course of the war. Burgoyne himself 
was a braggart, but he was no mere braggart. On his way he took 
Fort Ticonderoga and then Fort Edward, and came on boasting 
that " Britons never retreat." He found that when he wanted to 
retreat he couldn't, but that does not overthrow the fact that that 
army was the most important one sent upon the most vital mission 
of any English army in the Revolution, and he was in command of 
it because he was the most pompous, dogged, vigorous and ambi- 
tious soldier in the English service. That army was overwhelmed 
because it had to be. The Yankees were not always succesful, but 
they could be when they had to be. Saratoga proved it. Indi- 
vidual or incidental details like Bennington, Oriskany, the dastardly 
flunk of Clinton, were fine contributions to the splendid end, but 
notwithstanding them the end might have been otherwise. The 
great issue had to be made here and the great result had to be 
gained right here. Saratoga itself was as vital to the Union in the 
Revolution as Gettysburg was in the Civil War. If the Confed- 
eracy could force a battle in Pennsylvania and triumph, there was 
no hope. If the English could make such plans in New York and 
succeed, there was no hope. Saratoga and Gettysburg both had 
to be. 

One will never understand the progress of the Revolution unless 
he realizes the attitudes and theories of the colonial statesmen and 
military leaders. The loyalists had more men and greater resources 
and technically the more experienced soldiers. The patriots had 
the whole country, were more accustomed to warfare in the woods, 
and were able and willing to wait for battles on their own grounds 



244 

and at their own times. The British were three thousand miles 
from home, across a rough sea, without steam, disappointed in their 
American support, cooped up in the cities and camps, and having 
on their shoulders the burden of offensive operations. The Yan- 
kees were a singularly aggravating people to professional soldiers. 
They were at heme, could and did go about their store-keeping, 
their milling, and their farming, between the British interruptions, 
and if neccessary could play the game a thousand years. They 
could evacuate a town and, in every instance except the deplorable 
mistake of General Clinton at Charleston, they did unless it was 
clearly worth while not to do so ; they could retreat and maneuver 
with equanimity until the time and the place for retribution came 
to them. Old Sam Adams had it in mind when, after Bunker Hill, 
he said they had more hills to sell to the British at the same price, 
and General Greene was thinking of it when he said that while the 
Yankees had the sovereignty of the country, the British sovereignty 
never extended beyond their own out-sentinels. But the New York 
campaign, and particularly the capitulation at Saratoga, proved that 
the Colonials could do a thing when they had to, and the twenty 
thousand men they gathered here gave notice, writ large, that in 
the end their triumph would be complete. 

The loss of men and munitions of war was of itself a serious 
British loss. The campaign had certainly annulled the efficiency 
of no less than ten thousand men. And British grenadiers had 
money value so far from home ; the Hessians and Bruns'wickers had 
cost them a vast deal of good money; and they had paid dearly, 
too, for the Indians, who, keener than the whites and not caring 
whether it was to be a " capitulation " or a " convention," had not 
stayed to see it out. Before the capitulation the patriots had killed, 
wounded or captured eighteen hundred men. The Canadians and 
local Tories followed the example of the Indians in skulking off 
through the woods. Fifty-eight hundred were included in the 
terms of the convention. The Yankee farmers did not care for 
uniforms and they disliked drill, but they were very expert at kill- 
ing in their everyday clothes. Men who could shoot a deer running 
in the woods or over the hills had no trouble in slaughtering the 
draft horses of the artillery or the mounts of the general officers. 
The loss of British officers of distinction at Saratoga is surprising. 
It is said that six members of Parliament were among the slain. 
Of twenty English officers hit by bullets at Freeman's farm, ten 
were shot dead. The stores captured amounted to five thousand 



245 

muskets, seventy thousand rounds of ball cartridges, four hundred 
sets of harness, and the finest train of brass artillery that had then 
been made. And their cannon and small arms and stores were pre- 
cisely what the Yankees needed. But the real point of the British 
loss was in the loss of prestige. At other times the issue had been 
decisive or might be clouded, but there was no chance for that here. 
In strategy, in maneuvering, in flanking, in straight fighting center 
to center and man to man, upon the most vital field and thorough- 
fare that had been or could be in the course of the war, they had 
had to lay down their arms and ask for terms. It overthrew any 
reasonable expectation that it would be different at any other time. 
And in fact it did save New York and New England from fur- 
ther fighting north and east of the mouth of the Hudson through 
all the after days in the slow and aggravating war. Of course 
there was plenty of fighting and no end of suffering in the patriot 
cause for five long years thereafter, but neither before nor after 
was there any such strategic campaign, with so many men, so much 
dependent, such testing of soldiership, and ending in such complete 
disaster to British arms, and such utter humiliation to the British 
spirit, as in the New York campaign which had its far-reaching 
culmination at Saratoga. It was enough to signify to as honest a 
people as the English were, if they had been permitted to know the 
facts, that the war should have ended then and there. 

But the Revolution grew out of English politics, and although it 
had to go on because the necessities of English politics refused to 
accept a disaster to the army which would be an equivalent disaster 
to the Tory party, to the King's cabinet, and to the King himself, 
yet Saratoga was immediately reflected in the parliamentary de- 
bates, and encompassed the empire with the gravest perils that 
staunch structure has ever been called upon to withstand. 

The news of Saratoga reached the English government about the 
first of December, being six weeks on the way. The parliamentary 
discussion of the American question had all along been behind 
closed doors and studiously kept from the public, and it was at- 
tempted to keep even the hard news of the disaster to Burgoyne 
from Parliament itself. But there were giants in the opposition 
who were entirely equal to larger tasks than making the House of 
Commons open its doors to the people or compelling cabinet min- 
isters to admit a truth so momentous. The slowly rising tide of 
popular discontent helped to force the doors, and the apprehen- 
sion which had been aroused by Burke's foretelling of the worst, 



246 

doubled the opposition which supported his little party in com- 
pelling the disclosure of the facts. When Colonel Barre demanded 
that the Secretary for American Affairs inform the House what 
had become of General Burgoyne and his army, it was admitted 
that they had all been made prisoners but it was coolly urged that 
the House should suspend judgment. But such news as that was 
not conducive to a suspension of the judgment of the English 
Commons, and amid much disorder an acrimonious debate ensued. 

Barre, who had a soldierly record that was brilliant and a sol- 
dierly opinion that was of weight, charged the disaster upon the 
minister, Germain, rather than upon Burgoyne, and asserted that 
the whole plan for the invasion of New York had been condemned 
in advance by every soldier in the kingdom as " unworthy of a 
British war minister and too absurd for an Indian chief." The 
situation was so tense and the talk so hot that Burke called Lord 
Wedderburne, the Solicitor General, out to a fist fight or something 
worse, and Fox demanded that members of the cabinet should not 
only vacate their places but also be tried for criminal neglect. 
The government was arraigned for worse than the stupid planning 
of a British campaign and the heartless neglect of a British army 
that had been sent upon a vital mission into untold perils. Old 
soldiers and sailors who had led the forces of the kingdom to 
victories on land and sea minced no words in laying bare the unfit 
condition to which incapable and corrupt administration had 
brought the army and navy, and foretold early wars with more 
powerful enemies nearer home, which might repeat, upon British 
soil, the story of Saratoga, unless the bootless quarrel with the 
colonies was speedily ended and peace with America should be 
immediately concluded. With the finest irony and with withering 
scorn the government was pilloried for hiring mercenaries to help 
England make war upon English citizens in opposition to the law 
of the Empire and to the law of nations, and for holding out all 
that was opposed to English freedom to savage Indians who would 
burn the homes and scalp the wives and children of British 
subjects. 

So Saratoga appealed to the pride and indignation, even to the 
conscience and apprehension, of the British nation, by the tongues 
of the ablest men in a Parliament that Cowper has said embraced 
the largest number of the ablest men of any Parliament that ever 
sat. The appeal was not without effect upon the government itself, 
and the doors were open enough to make the appeal exceedingly 



247 

effective upon the public opinion of the realm. The ministers met 
the assault for the moment, as weak or corrupt men commonly do, 
with flippancy and boasting, and then adjourned for a six weeks' 
holiday vacation; but the masses thought it more fitting to meet 
it with a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. Soon after the 
return from the roast beef and plum pudding of the holiday 
recess, the prime minister brought in a proposition to send a com- 
mission to America to promise the colonists all that they had ever 
asked, together with representation in Parliament, upon the only 
condition that they would return to their allegiance. With the 
approval of Parliament he sent it by a commissioner who, Horace 
Walpole said, was a fit commissioner to make a treaty that would 
never be made. Whether Horace was altogether correct or not, 
he certainly was so in part, for the Continental Congress unani- 
mously resolved not to confer with any commissioners from Great 
Britain until independence was recognized in express terms by 
the cabinet ministers themselves. Saratoga had turned the corner 
of the struggle which was writing "American Independence " 
across the skies. 

But the news of Saratoga set new forces in motion that were 
even more compelling in the direction of independence than was 
pride, or fear, or conscience. Apprehension of those new forces 
on the other side of the sea doubtless compelled the overtures for 
peace; and the hope and expectation of them, joined with the 
great confidence which Saratoga had inspired, may explain the 
unanimity with which those far-reaching overtures were rejected 
on this side of the sea. 

There was hardly a court in Europe from Madrid to Moscow 
that had not for years been disposed to throw stones at the Court 
of London, or to hold the coats of those who would. They had 
hitherto preferred to do it in the dark, and had done a good deal 
of diplomatic lying about it, but they were about ready to do it in 
daylight. The King of England had been sending royal messen- 
gers with autograph notes to the sovereigns of Europe praying them 
to supply soldiers to reduce his rebellious colonies in America, 
with assurances that he would not regard the cost. Brave little 
Holland recalled her own revolutionary history, remembered her 
children upon the Hudson and Mohawk, and sharply refused. 
Even the giddy dame and subtle sovereign on Russia's throne 
resented the bald proposition that she might plunge her hand 
as deeply, as she pleased into Britain's treasury if she would send 



248 

twenty thousand troops to help her royal brother in distress. She 
' held it to be an offense to her honor, and she does not seem to have 
been overfastidious about honor either. She asked the King's 
emissary if it would not disgust the people of England, and 
assured him that it was " not consistent with the dignity of ling- 
land to employ foreign troops against her own subjects." It was 
left to the petty princes of Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick in Ger- 
many to sell their subjects upon abhorrent terms and for vast 
sums upon which one of the best of the English historians says 
England is paying interest to this very day. But the bluff and 
great Frederick, King of Prussia, characterized the performance 
as driving men to the shambles like cattle, for nothing but money. 

But of all the enemies that England had in Europe, France and 
Spain were the nearest, the strongest, the bitterest, and the most 
superficially polite. They were both hereditary rivals of England 
for the possession of America, and it was not two score years 
since Wolfe and Montcolm had fought their doubly tragic duel upon 
the Plains of Abraham, as a result of which England had taken 
Canada from France and would drive her out of America for 
good, and was pushing Spain beyond the Mississippi with rather 
serious intimations, which we have seen realized, that she too 
might be obliged to get off the American continent altogether. 
These two powerful nations, united by heredity, religion, military 
efficiency, and discomfitures, were not the kind to lose sight of the 
opportunity for crippling their arch enemy by encouraging the 
American revolt. 

They acted together not only in giving encouragement but in 
supplying money, clothing, cannon, small arms, shot and powder 
to the colonists. This began in May 1776, two months before the 
Declaration of Independence. Of course it had to be disguised, 
for any public knowledge of it would have been tantamount to 
the declaration of another war across the English channel. They 
were no strangers to war, but they knew their old antagonist very 
well and they realized the danger of clashing with her again unless 
at a time when she was handicapped or crippled. Under such 
tense circumstances the French and Spanish supplies flowed rather 
freely when the patriots were successful, but the stream was more 
sluggish whenever the Revolution seemed to face the possibility 
of failure. It almost dried up in the summer and fall of 1777, 
when the colonial outlook was so discouraging that the secret 
agent of France told Franklin that there was danger of France 



249 

" cutting my throat as if I was a sheep." Eut in October the 
conquest at Saratoga opened the flood-gates and threw off all dis- 
guise. 

Early in December an evening dinner party at Doctor Franklin's 
house at Passy, a suburb of Paris, was very properly interrupted 
by a courier with news of the disaster to Burgoyne, and that 
agent, who was enjoying the doctor's hospitality, rushed off to 
carry the news to the court at Versailles with so much elation 
over the increased safety to his throat that in his haste and in the 
darkness he upset his coach and dislocated his shoulder. But the 
news led the King to move almost as precipitously as his agent, 
for on December 6th the American representatives in Paris re- 
ceived the direct assurances of Louis the Fourteenth written on 
the gilt edged stationery which he reserved exclusively for his 
correspondence, that France was now ready to give to the United 
States every proof of his interest and affection. Six days later 
Vergennes granted the American delegates a formal audience and 
with such favorable results that in another six days, in replying 
to the dispatch from Congress announcing the capture of Bur- 
goyne, the delegates assured Congress that the " surrender of 
Burgoyne had created as much joy in France as if it had been a 
victory of their own troops over their own enemies." The prelim- 
inary articles of alliance with France were signed on January 17th, 
and the formal ones on February 6th. The alliance was tantamount 
to a declaration of war against England, and the brief delay in the 
public proclamation of the treaty was for military reasons. 

There were in fact two of these treaties. One was for amity 
and trade. The other established a complete military and civic 
alliance. The latter contravened the instructions of the Continental 
Congress, for that body had expressed views that were greatly to 
its honor and far in advance of the accepted tenets of international 
diplomacy of that day. Foreshadowing a course which the United 
States, with the exception of this single instance, has always con- 
sistently adhered to, the Congress had instructed its representatives 
to avoid a treaty which might " entangle us in any future wars in 
Europe " and it exemplified its statesmanship as well as its love of 
Old England by directing its ambassadors to refuse "to unite with 
France in the destruction of England." This was the first treaty 
that our country ever made, and it is the only offensive and de- 
fensive alliance that it has ever entered into. And the time ca'Tie 
when even this had to be renounced rather ruthlessly and without 



250 

reparation. But all good and patriotic Americans have weighed 
the motives of the parties and witnessed the historical results, and 
have been glad that such a spotless character and able jurist as 
John Jay could say, when it came to renouncing this treaty so 
vital to the life of the Union, that he would break the instructions 
of the Congress as readily as he would the pipe that be then 
threw upon the hearth. 

The course of the United States in this great matter is easily 
enough understood for it seems to have been dictated by absolute 
necessity, but it is difficult to justify the diplomacy of France. 
The French King with his Queen perished upon the scaffold of a 
revolution which was the logical descendant of the one he was now 
aiding and abetting. The cost to France of aid given to the 
colonies was over 1,280,000,000 francs or $256,000,000. That was 
enough of itself to bring on the French Revolution. This aid was 
given to Anglo-Saxon liberty in America in order to menace Eng- 
land and thus help despotism in France. But it had the contrary 
effect. It promoted liberty in America, in England, in France, 
and in all the world. So God makes His own use of human 
agencies to promote His own ends. 

The dispatches announcing the execution of the French treaties 
were received by Congress on Saturday, May 2, 1778. It was 
after adjournment for the week when they were delivered, but 
Congress reconvened at once in order that the good news need 
not be concealed over Sunday. On the ensuing Monday the 
treaties were ratified by Congress. Robert Morris wrote Wash- 
ington, " Our independence is undoubtedly secured : our country 
must be free." The army at Valley Forge had a holiday; the 
commander in chief gave a dinner; Lafayette was given the com- 
mand of a division; and the whole was solemnized by thanks- 
giving to God in acknowledgment of the divine goodness which 
had vouchsafed to the colonies the alliance with France. 

France followed the treaties very soon with a formal declaration 
of war against England, and with earnest appeals to Spain to act 
in concert with her. Indeed, she had already notified Spain that 
the months of January and February 1778 would be the outside 
limit of time when Spain must unite with France in an alliance 
with the colonies and a declaration of war against England in 
order to make the assistance effective enough to deserve Ameri- 
can gratitude in case of success. The moment the French min- 
istry received the news of Saratoga, Vergennes sent a courier to 



251 

Madrid urging combined and immediate action. Fortunately 
France took the important step from which she could not draw 
back without waiting for the return of the courier. Spain refused 
an immediate declaration of war on the ground that she was not 
prepared for it, and urged that the building up of an independent 
republic in America was of questionable expediency. 

In the light of subsequent events the attitude of the leading 
Spanish statesmen is singularly interesting. France, with whom 
their country was allied by blood, religion, system of government, 
ideals, dangers, and disappointments, was urging her to aid the 
colonies, and they were urging upon her far greater rewards than 
they could afford to give her, and yet she stood firm in her opposi- 
tion to a republic in America for the reason, as one of her states- 
men advised her king, that " this federal republic is born a pigmy ; 
a da)'' will come when it will be a giant; even a Colossus formid- 
able to these countries," and as another put it, " if the union of 
the American provinces shall continue, they will become by force 
of time and of the arts, the most formidable power in the world." 

In the following year Spain declared war upon England but 
happily for us avoided the American alliance which the colonists 
urged and for which we now know they were ready to pay too 
heavy a price. The year after that England was at war with 
Holland too because she gave the colonies her sympathy and some 
financial assistance. And with it all there was a recognition of the 
new-born republic and a declaration of neutrality by Russia, Den- 
mark, and Sweden. 

Britain with a formidable revolution on her hands was now 
menaced by the great military forces of Europe. No real lover of 
English freedom can be devoid of sorrow and pity that a people 
with such qualities, such a history, such constitutional power and 
such capacity for exercising it, could let an over-ambitious and 
unscrupulous monarch carry them to such an extremity of danger 
and humiliation. For it was no more a question as to whether the 
colonies should go free than it was whether the British Empire 
should survive. Happily the colonies did go free, and, happily, 
the Empire did survive. 

Condensed into few words, the immediate military results of 
the destruction of Burgoyne's army may be stated as follows: it 
took from Britain in the field ten thousand of the best officers and 
soldiers in the British army ; it transferred from the British to the 
Colonists vast stores of war of which the little Confederacy stood 



252 

sorely in need; it destroyed all confidence in the Indians as allies 
of value in systematic warfare, and opened the way for punishing 
the Iroquois so severely that they feared and respected white 
civilization ever after; it cut off for all time all communication 
between the English loyalists in Canada and their army and navy 
at the mouth of the Hudson ; and it completely ended all resistance 
to the Revolution in New York and New England where there 
was the most in America that could give strength and substance to 
the British crown. It opened the doors of the House of Commons, 
appealed to English sense, pride and conscience, and led to immed- 
iate overtures for peace from Britain on any terms but separation, 
and to the unanimous and unhesitating rejection of these overtures. 
It produced the French alliance and the consequent war by France 
upon England, the war of Spain upon England, the Dutch loan to 
the Colonists and then the warfare of the Netherlands upon Eng- 
land, and the early recognition of American independence by all 
the leading powers of Europe. 

No one suggests that the Revolution ended at Saratoga. Com- 
pletely foiled in the northern colonies, the Mother Country turned 
to the southern colonies. She probably reasoned that there were 
more loyalists and perhaps not so many hardy fighters there. If 
so she had occasion to realize that in part at least she was mis- 
taken. As horrid war receded from their cabins the exhausted 
settlers, north or south, became indifferent. They were without 
men to send long distances; there was lack of roads and of means 
of transportation; and they could not go far from their own fire- 
sides without grave danger to their wives and children. They 
were not only without money, but they were without government 
or the experience which could make government effective. Worse 
still perhaps, the states were jealous of each other and of all central 
power. Each knew that with the help of its neighbors at least it 
could defend itself against invasion, and reasoned that far away 
states must do the same. So the war dragged its slow course 
through months and years of suffering and death, until the men 
of the South proved at Cowpens, and King's Mountain, and 
Yorktown, what the men of the North had proved at Oriskany, 
and Bennington, and Saratoga. But the time never was before 
the surrender at Saratoga when the separation from Great Britain 
was altogether certain, and the time never was after Saratoga 
when there was any reasonable doubt about it. 

But if Saratoga was a turning point in the Revolutionary War, 



2 53 

it was also very much more than that, for the success of the 
American Revolution brought new lights into the world and opened 
wholly unprecedented opportunities for the unhampered advances 
of the noblest qualities of men and women. The separation 
from Britain must have been in the Divine Plan. The Colonists were 
not seeking independence except as independence, which, in view of 
the unscrupulous conduct of the English king and the hot-headed 
course of the English Parliament, was the last refuge of English 
liberty in America. They did not want war; they went to great 
pains to prove that they did not begin it. But their inherent 
qualities — self-reliance, self-confidence, love of fair play, gifts for 
establishing social order, the matter-of-course assumption that the 
fundamental rights of English freemen could not be impaired, and 
the purpose to manage their own business in their own way, made 
the Colonists invincible. They were invincible not because they 
loved war or were in rebellion against English institutions. Neither 
was true. They abhorred war and were in love with English in- 
stitutions. Indeed, they were net dissatisfied with' the form of the 
English government. They were invincible because the soul of a 
new and a free nation was ripe for its birth. 

Independence had to be, not only because of what compelled it, 
but because the world was ready and waiting for what was to flow 
out of it. There are no bonds strong enough to confine the mind 
and soul of a human being, and surely there are none strong enough 
to limit the growth of the mind and soul of a new nation. The 
inherent qualities, the native impulses, of those early colonists, 
wrought out even more than they understood. They compelled 
intellectual, spiritual, political, industrial, commercial and social 
opportunity. They assured equality of right to all. They opened 
the way for that unprecedented expansion of all the self-activities 
which constitute the soul of a nation. The American colonies did 
more than win independence. They won freedom, absolute free- 
dom for themselves and enlarged freedom for the people of all 
lands. It is that which brought the sagacious prophecy of the 
Spanish statesman of 1777 to realization so swiftly and so strongly. 

But so much had to be settled through human instrumentalities 
and expressed in human action. And it transpired that more of 
that heroic human action which determined that America should 
be civilized rather than savage, English rather than Bourbon, re- 
publican rather than monarchial, and completely free in a new 
world rather than bound by the laws, usage, and thought of the 



254 

Old World, was expressed along the mighty thoroughfare which 
follows the Hudson from the sea to its source, and then winds 
along the shores of Lake George and Lake Champlain to the 
Sorrell and the St Lawrence rivers. It is truly the greatest street 
ever cut through a wilderness for the mental and moral progress 
of mankind. A decade before the Pilgrims came to Plymouth 
Rock, the great forerunners of American exploration, Champlain 
and Hudson, in the same year, working from the north and from 
the south, and without knowledge of each other, laid down this 
first great highway upon the map of the western world. It was the 
bloody warpath of the Iroquois and the Algonquin, of the French 
and Indian, and of the Revolutionary, wars. It is so level and so 
watered that one may float a boat almost the entire distance. It 
encounters but one elevation and that of but a hundred and fifty 
feet. It has come to be a great national highway of commerce and 
of pleasure. With the Berkshires and the Green mountains over- 
hanging it upon one side, and the Catskills and the Adirondacks 
upon the other, it must always remain surpassingly wild, pictur- 
esque, impressive and sublime. It is the easy roadway to the very 
heart of nature in America, but even that is not its chief attraction. 
It is the chief roadway over which the new-born soul of the nation 
fought its way to that freedom of opportunity which has attracted 
all the peoples of the earth and here gathered and assimilated the 
great new nation of modern history. Every rod of it has been 
crimsoned with heroic and patriotic blood. Every nook and vista 
of it has its true story of struggle and accomplishment, of daring 
and of sorrow. At its foot the first American settlement that has 
endured was established, and there the foremost city of the land, 
very soon to be the foremost city of the world, sits in confidence 
and glory. In that city the first rich blood of the Revolution was 
spilled, and there, eight years after, Washington bade his official 
farewell to the officers of the patriot army he had led to complete 
victory. Retreating along this road, under the protection of the 
army, the New York Convention wrote the first Constitution of 
the State. In sight of it Arnold proved many times what a fine 
soldier he was, and once he showed what a contemptible traitor he 
could be. And in sight of it too American literature had its birth. 
So too did American unity, for at Albany, in 1754, the first Con- 
gress of the American Confederation was assembled, and at 
Poughkeepsie the State Convention gave to the Federal Constitu- 
tion that vital support which it had to have. Fort Edward, Fort 



255 

William Henry, Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point, which are a little 
farther up along this roadway, signify pleasant resting places to 
us, but they ought to portray thousands of men in the bloody 
agonies of death for English liberty and American independence. 
Plattsburg, at the far end of it, makes us think of a thrifty city 
and a pleasant people, but it might well make us think of an old 
sailor calling his officers to the quarter-deck of his flagship and 
kneeling down and praying for the victory such men clearly 
deserved and were very soon to win. A special paper, perhaps a 
book, would be needed to specify the events of real and often of 
supreme significance to American nationality and to human free- 
dom in the world, which have transpired along this magnificent 
highway of more than three hundred miles. 

Midway upon this great thoroughfare so close to nature, so 
created by and so consecrated to the country, stands Saratoga. 
It is rightfully at the center of the line for it marks the high tide 
of the Revolutionary War, the site of one of the great decisive 
battles of the world ; it assured the life of the first great republic 
that has long endured to give opportunity to the many-sided phases 
of the spiritual, social, industrial, and political life of mankind. 



EDUCATION BUILDING - DEDICATORY 
ADDRESS 

[257] 



EDUCATION BUILDING — DEDICATORY ADDRESS * 

Your Excellency Governor Dix, Mr Chancellor and Ladies and 
Gentlemen: 

This building had its beginning in the very early history of this 
nation. The Dutch colonial charter of 1629, given by a people more 
advanced in democracy, in learning and in the skilled industries, 
than any other people in the world, and before there was a school 
in America, enjoined the little colony upon Manhattan island to 
" find ways and means to support a minister and a schoolmaster, 
that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow 
cold and be neglected among them." In 1633, there was organized 
in New Amsterdam by a Dutch schoolmaster, Adam Roelandson, 
the first common school in America; and today a manuscript bear- 
ing the signature of that first schoolmaster is carefully guarded 
in the vaults of this building. A second chapter, and a very im- 
portant one, in the history of this building begins immediately at 
the close of the Revolutionary War at the " first session after the 
peace " when an act was passed by the Legislature creating the 
corporation known as " The Regents of the University of the 
State of New York," and empowering that organization to hold 
property to the amount of the annual income of " forty thousand 
bushels of wheat." A third step was taken in 1795 when the 
State made a liberal appropriation and initiated the very vital 
American educational policy of systematically subsidizing and en- 
couraging elementary schools. Still another chapter which looms 
large today in the records of the antecedents of this building, was 
begun in 1812 when the State of New York, the first in the 
country, passed the law which bound all the public schools to- 
gether in a common system and took them under the direction 
of the State. Yet another step in the march toward this build- 
ing was taken in 1854 when the State anticipated her neighbors by 
organizing an independent State Department of Public Instruc- 
tion for the supervision of common schools. Then in the progress 
of time and after much tribulation came the unification of all 



1 Address delivered by invitation of the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York at the dedication of the New York State Education 
Building, October 17. 1912. 

259 
9 



260 

the educational forces of the State in 1904, and in 1910 the 
Education Law which fixed everything rather securely. These 
are the dates in the history of New York education which are 
great enough to give them places upon the seal of the State Educa- 
tion Department. The occupancy of this building will doubtless 
justify the adding of another. 

It would be a pleasant task here to record the names and 
the accomplishments of the men who during the past three hundred 
years have stood at the forefront, giving themselves to the schools 
and urging that the State should make ample provision for the 
education of its people. But we do not alone dedicate this build- 
ing to the memory of the leaders in education who have gone. 
In this proud hour we do not forget the men and women in all 
walks of life who have made the Empire State the noble Common- 
wealth that she is. We have nothing but appreciation, gratitude 
and honor for those who broke the roads through the wilderness; 
who withstood the Indians and made clearings in the valleys ; who 
set up log cabins, and schoolhouses, and churches ; who established 
the finest young farming civilization that the world ever saw; who 
developed towns and highways, canals and railroads ; and whose 
common sincerity and political sagacity laid firm the foundations 
upon which such a State could be built. We cherish the memories 
of the men and women of the last generation who had to over- 
come much and specious opposition to bear the great burden which 
it was the business of this State to carry in the war to save the 
Union. Nor do we overlook the teachers, and preachers, and law- 
yers, and publishers, and bankers, and engineers, and all the other 
workers who have made this State in this generation to thrill with 
an energy which makes her exalted position and her great influence 
to be everywhere honored. We would if we could inscribe their 
names upon the sunny side of this fair temple. 

This building comes very naturally and very logically in the prog- 
ress of education in this State. It has not resulted from accident 
or chance. The Unification Act of 1904 forever silenced the in- 
evitable differences in the double-headed system of administration 
in education which had persistently existed in this State for 
more than an hundred years. When that act came into actual and 
entirely successful operation there were many who felt that the 
time had fully come when there should be something which would 
serve as a pledge of perpetual union and an assurance of vital 
educational progress, and which would at once place education 



26l 

where it of right belongs in the activities of such a state. A 
permanent home for the unified department was therefore the 
natural suggestion. The legislative bill providing for the project 
was drawn with a full knowledge of the skepticism of the public 
about the erection of state buildings. It therefore contained the 
safeguards of orderly and intelligent procedure, of honest business 
management, and of satisfactory architectural and utilitarian results. 
It did much more. The proposal to bring all educational interests 
under one roof, under a unified legislative and executive administra- 
tion, with the enlarged assurance of permanent unity, at once com- 
mended itself to legislative committees that had long sought educa- 
tional peace. The bill was somewhat attractive because it placed 
New York before every other state and every other country in 
erecting a really noble structure declared by law to be for the 
exclusive use of its educational forces. The appeal for it was not 
made to the Legislature alone; it was made quite as directly to 
the people. And the nobility of the proposition, the promise that 
was in it, possibly the very audacity or aggressiveness of it, appealed 
to the temper of the State so strongly that all opposition disappeared. 

A more serious task than that of securing the law appeared when 
the time came for a few men to meet the demands of the law and 
of the situation. It is one thing for a monarch with boundless 
power and limitless resources to empower a great artist to develop 
a great structure; it is quite another thing for a democratic people 
acting through their own representatives to enter upon such an 
enterprise with promise of satisfactory result. The exactions in 
this case were very great. The structure had to provide for many 
and marvelous activities, which in complexity, exactness and extent, 
are hardly rivaled in any manner of public administration. It had 
to respond to the nobler side of our nature, or fail. It had to 
regard all interior arrangements which would aid the technical 
work of a large force, and it had to stand adjacent to, and there- 
fore in architectural rivalry with, a monumental Capitol which 
had exceeded it in cost six times over. It could only be successful 
by making it serve its work completely and by making it at the 
same time strikingly beautiful. It was necessary to study the in- 
terior plans with infinite care, and appeal to the Gods of Art and 
Architecture for the exterior. 

The public will welcome the announcement that we dedicate a 
building which has been carried to admirable and complete fruition 
without a scandal, without unseemly controversy, and within the 



262 

appropriation that was first provided for it. But more than that 
has been done. More has been done than the successful housing 
of many interests under one roof. More has been done than the 
erection of a building so admirably adapted to its uses that it at 
once becomes the comfortable home and the inspiration of the widely 
different work of the many divisions of the Education Department. 
It is confidently believed that a substantial contribution has been 
made to the art and architecture of the world. If this building were 
to stand near the best of the state capitals, or even the national 
capital, typical and beautiful as that is, it would hold the attention 
and the admiration of all lovers of the beautiful; if it had to bear 
comparison with the great churches of the world — St Paul's and 
Westminster in London, Notre Dame in Paris, St Isaac's in St 
Petersburg, St Peter's in Rome — it might fall short in massiveness 
and impressiveness, but the nobility of lines and proportions, and 
the bold and chaste uses of stone and iron for the promotion of 
culture and the quickening of spirituality, would attract the admira- 
tion of all visitors ; and if judges of the supremely beautiful in con- 
struction were to stand where Michel Angelo's David overlooks the 
great center of the world's art at Florence, or where Gallon's Gari- 
baldi looks down upon the world's most ancient and unique collec- 
tion of architecture at Rome, and were to see these white marble 
walls, these harmonious proportions, and this long and graceful 
colonnade, they would surely marvel at the genius that had begotten 
it, and place it among the first dozen of most beautiful buildings in 
the world. 

But while we rejoice in the grace and dignity of this building, we 
remember that this dedication but creates for us the opportunity 
for service, and that a real uplift to the State must come through 
the uses to which it is to be put. In a larger sense we rededicate 
today to the service of the people of the State and of the nation 
the remains of a noble library, which were gathered up in flame 
and smoke, and which by the noble action of the State is being 
hourly made broader and stronger than we had ever dared to hope ; 
we rededicate museum collections known throughout the scientific 
world ; and we strengthen and quicken an administrative educational 
organization which extends to every home in the State and is in 
constant cooperation with like agencies in all lands. 

In this library we will make a storehouse of the " best books of 
all lands and all ages." We will be tolerant. We will discriminate 
against none save on moral grounds. We can hardly use the money 



263 

of the people for editions of capricious value. But we will lay 
hold of the products of human experience and of intellectual energy 
in this country and in all countries, that the State Library " may 
uplift the State and serve every citizen." Pure literature, literature 
to quicken the spiritual as well as the intellectual life, literature 
which unfolds the history of the human race and of the English 
and American people in particular, the literature of the political 
sciences and of the physical sciences, all that can make New York 
richer in mind and stronger in social structure, and more zestful 
for the true greatness of the State, will have welcome in this 
State's storehouse of knowledge and of power. 

But we will make it a power station more than a storehouse. 
Books have come to be commonplace in our generation of much 
publication. There is little point in setting up a collection of books 
only for such as will come and use them. New York dedicates 
this building to more than that. The State has heretofore set up 
buildings only out of necessity and for very material ends. It has 
yielded to demands when necessary to protect itself, but it has 
not often taken the initiative and the aggressive to uplift itself. 
This building recognizes the fact that the culture of the soul is 
a work which the State is not only to consent to and encourage, 
but which it is to aid and to promote. We dedicate this building 
to the generation of the energy and the wisdom which will qualify 
man for dominion not only over the earth and air and sky but also 
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth including his 
dominion over self. 

In this museum we shall record not only the progress of man but 
the march of the ages. Here shall be brought together whatever 
shall help man to solve the mystery of the earth upon which we live. 
Here shall experts delve into the obscure and bring to the service 
of the people both our manifest and our hidden resources. Here 
shall be shown for popular interest the flora and fauna of our 
State. Here shall we portray in graphic form the great names and 
great deeds of New York. And while we dedicate this museum to 
all that is exact and accurate in science, we would not forget that the 
age demands that all knowledge must be brought to bear useful ends 
in uplifting and in enlightening all the people. In rededicating the 
great museum which will soon loom large upon the fourth floor, 
we recall its good work in the long years when science had few 
friends and states gave small support to it; and we start it off at 
a new pace and with even a new courage to unlock more truth, 



264 

and with the expectation that it will incite still more people to search 
for the truth. 

Beyond particular things we set apart this noble structure to 
the advancement of every educative influence within the State. 
We here refresh our faith in that " system of free common schools 
wherein all the children of the State may be educated." Our statutes 
place upon the New York educational organization a tremendous re- 
sponsibility. Nearly two million boys and girls and young men and 
women are in attendance upon our schools; more than fifty thou- 
sand men and women are engaged in teaching these schools ; 
eighty million dollars are expended annually for education; and 
more than three hundred and fifty million dollars are invested 
in school and college property in this State. Our constituency is 
everywhere and our obligation reaches to every cross-road. We are 
here to set sane standards for all grades and classes of schools. 
We are here to say who shall not be allowed to teach and to enforce 
school laws. We are here to charter colleges and universities and 
professional schools and to bring them into logical and effective 
cooperation with each other and with the entire system of educa- 
tion. We are here to maintain and advance the high standard which 
this State has long set in regulating the practice of the pro- 
fessions. We are here to foster and to encourage all private schools 
and other private educational agencies, and so far as possible to 
blend them in the organized system of the State. To the State 
government, its executive officers, its legislatures, its boards and 
commissions, to all of its county and municipal officers charged 
with public business, this building will give every aid that will be 
accepted. Every instrument of culture, everything that makes for 
the common good, shall find here a helping hand. 

This fortunate square, at the midst of the State's most exciting 
controversies, when self-interest is tense and reason blinded, shall be 
neutral ground. This house shall know no social, political, or re- 
ligious distinctions. It shall be hospitable and helpful to all. Some 
one shall stand in the open door to help all men and women, all boys 
and girls, to the very limits of that individual self-reliance which is 
the true essence of American manhood and womanhood. It shall not 
aggravate hatreds. It shall square life with truth. This building 
shall stand upon the foundation principles upon which our free State 
rests, and shall be devoted to the exalted purposes for which our free 
State exists. It shall assure equality of opportunity ; it shall pro- 
vide the common helps which the individual can not supply ; it shall 



265 

aim to adjust the man to the mass and make the wheels of the social 
structure and of the government organization run truly, harmo- 
niously, and for resultful ends. Such a structure, with such a pur- 
pose, is the only kind of instrument through which our claims about 
the worth of our democracy can be made good. Even then all 
depends upon the strength and vitality of the instrument, and that 
of course means upon the human elements that are the vital factors 
of it. 

There will have to be resistance as well as propelling force. There 
will have to be standards here and they will have to be upheld even 
though the powerful would break them down. We dedicate this 
building to open-mindedness and yet to exactness, to the avoidance 
of error, to the correction of mistakes, to the exposure of fraud. 
It will have standards and it will adhere to them. Its mission is 
to favor none unless he is disposed to be right, and to oppose 
none unless he is disposed to be wrong. It will regard the interest 
of every man, but it will not forget that the concerns of the man 
are more dependent upon the moral health of the mass than upon 
all else; and it will stand aloof from those who would break down 
the standards of education for some personal end, and so pollute 
the streams which sustain the life of the State itself. 

We are honored by the attendance of many guests eminent in 
the educational work of other states and other lands. It has been 
kind of them to come, and they have been more than generous in 
their words of commendation. Our system of examinations and of 
registering institutions in all states and many lands may lead us 
into the bad habit of assuming too much. It would be worse for 
New York to do too little than to assume too much. We would 
do neither. We know that she is a strong state, bound to bear a 
strong hand in the educational as in all the work of the country. We 
hope not to do it in any ungracious way. We want to be good 
citizens, agreeable neighbors, in the democracy of learning. There 
are other states where the common educational opinion is freer 
than it is here because their laws and institutions and constitu- 
tions responded to riper early situations than ours did. There are 
other states where the ordinary sentiment stands for wider oppor- 
tunities for the highest learning more than it does here. We have 
no unusual ground for boasting; we would not seem boastful. On 
the other hand, no other state is confronted by the educational 
difficulties presented by our complex, and steadily becoming more 
complex, population of ten millions of people. New York has 



266 

reason enough to spend her energy and her money to train both the 
old stock and the new stock that steadily pours across her northern 
border and rushes in at her southern gateway. We interlace with 
the educational world as perhaps no other state does. We dedicate 
this building to common sympathies and to mutual helpfulness ; we 
want help and as the only way to get is by giving in education we 
offer such largeness of undertaking and such measure of leadership 
as our situation, our resources, and our necessities thrust upon us. 

This building is rooted deep in our illustrious educational history. 
We dedicate it reverently to the memory of our pioneers. The 
people who have erected it are struggling for all manner of progress 
in the most tense and complex civilization the world has ever known. 
We dedicate it bravely and courageously to the needs of the throb- 
bing present. It will have a work to do in the long future. We 
dedicate it solemnly to the needs of the generations yet unborn. 
With all our rich experience, with all the records of our past, educa- 
tion is yet in its infancy. It was only yesterday that higher education 
was for but the few, and those few, men; it was only yesterday 
that there was not a free public high school in America; it is 
only today that we have begun to fit our lower schools to the 
real needs of boys and girls. And so we dedicate these halls to 
that which is to come after us. 

We consecrate this splendid pile of stone and steel to the enrich- 
ment of the great soul of the Empire State. We set apart this 
ground and this beautiful building to the good service of free educa- 
tion, and we dedicate ourselves, our children and their children to its 
generous support and to its unselfish, unpartisan, enlightened and 
patriotic use for the true greatness of the State and the highest 
good of all her people. 



LB Mr 't 3 



